The Religious Issue

No one can tell how Kennedy's Catholicism will affect the election result. The shadow of Al Smith, the Democrats one Catholic nominee who was beaten disastrously by Hoover in 1928, haunts Kennedy. Experts are not agreed that his religion was a major factor in Smith's defeat (it could have helped him in some states) and probably no one could have beaten Hoover. Kennedy has not been above using his religion for his political advantage, as when, earlier this year, he tried to blackmail the Democratic Party by suggesting that if he were not nominated it would lose Catholic votes. These tactics could backfire badly.

Much of the opposition to Kennedy on religious issues has been led by prominent Protestant clergymen. Early this year Bishop Pike of the Episcopal Church began a furore by suggesting that Kennedy would not use U.S. Foreign Aid Funds to promote birth control in undeveloped countries. The U.S. probably would never do this anyway, but the issue had considerable emotional value. Two weeks ago a group of some of the right U.S. Protestant clergy, led by Norman Vincent ("The Power of Positive Thinking") Peale and Daniel Poling, signed a statement questioning Kennedy's fitness for the Presidency on religious grounds. Liberal Protestants, including Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich, immediately condemned the statement, but if the sectarian campaign against Kennedy gets such "respectable" backing it could do him much harm.

—J.D.