Religious ideals vs. religious bigotry

During John F. Kennedy's campaign for the presidency, that would entrust him as the first Roman Catholic to serve in the White House, JFK assured an audience in largely protestant West Virginia that there was nothing in his own religious beliefs that would prevent him from fulfilling his oath to office, and there had not been any when he had done the same as an elected member of Congress, or Navy office in combat in World War II (video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJyb9R_TL8M).

JFK was not defending religious bigotry; he was speaking out against it, as he did at the Democratic National Convention.

There now appears to be some members of JFK's faith, but not the universal church, trying to make a doctrine of faith of their bigoted intent to infringe on the equal protection of the law to others, trying to turn the electorate into a ballot-box lynch mob to such a purpose, and going so far as to make the court into a Tribunal of Inquisition that will persecute those who do not accept the absolutism of holier-than-thou True Believers.

All will wisely take exception to this, even those willing to live their lives in obedience to some Defender of the Faith (the TRUE one) and Lord on High Grand Inquisitor (maybe named Bob Vander Plaats). The willingly compliant would soon discover that they can never be holy enough in image and likeness to escape the wrath of their God and one's own God won't count much.

Sam Osborne

West Branch