President John F. Kennedy Eulogizes the Methodist Bishop Who Helped Reconcile American Protestants to Having a Catholic President

The first Catholic President also praises the Bishop’s advocacy of “religious liberty and tolerance”

The issue of Kennedy’s religion was a significant one – if not the most significant one – in the 1960 presidential campaign. JFK’s speechwriter Ted Sorenson would later say, “Clearly there was a very large number that didn’t think Catholics should be president of the U.S.” And the prejudice was quite open. Richard Nixon, Kennedy’s opponent, piously said, “I am not going to raise the religion issue.” To demonstrate his sincerity, he said that in every state. So, as Sorenson noted, “it was out there.” Kennedy would meet this prejudice head on.

Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, often called “America’s Protestant cardinal”, was president of American Methodist bishops as well as a leader of the POAU, the lobbying group, Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the FCC – a precursor to the National Council of Churches. His antipathy to the American Catholic hierarchy was well known. But a key strength of Kennedy was his willingness to meet face to face with those who were potentially his strongest opposition. Kennedy met with Oxnam before the campaign, and the Bishop introduced him in April 1959 to a meeting of 51 Methodist bishops – a group no less hostile than the Houston Ministers Association that Kennedy would meet the next year in Texas. Kennedy met with the best of his opposition for dialogue and debate, and the Houston ministers and Methodist bishops respected his courageous engagement with them. Sorenson stated that after the American Methodist bishops meeting, “I had a secret meeting with him [Oxnam] to enlist his help with the campaign…”

On May 3, 1960, one week before the key West Virginia Primary, Oxnam (whose long years of opposition to the American Catholic hierarchy gave him “impeccable”credentials for the task), Francis Sayre (Dean of the Washington Episcopal Cathedral), and eleven other Protestant leaders issued an open letter to their “Fellow Pastors in Christ.” “Quite apart from what our attitude toward the Roman Church may be,” the letter said,”We think it unjust to discount anyone of [the candidates] because of bis chosen faith.”

On Sept. 12, 1960, presidential candidate Kennedy gave his famous speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a group of Protestant ministers, on the issue of his religion. He said in part: “But let me stress again that these are my views. For contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.”

Aside from the question of religion, the Kennedy generation of John, Robert, and Ted was known for its dedication to public service. They epitomized the ideal of making the world a better place. It is summed up in Ted Kennedy’s eulogy of his brother, Robert: “My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.”

Indeed such a concept was central to JFK’s inaugural address, in which he wrote “The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.” The idea of self sacrifice in service of a better world for others is built into his most famous quotation, “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.”

Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, March 15, 1963, to Oxnam’s widow, praising his contributions. “All Americans are saddened by the loss of your husband. His life was so full of good deeds, as of fame, that it can truthfully be said that he left this world a better place than he found it.

“He was particularly nice to me on many occasions, and his strong views on behalf of religious liberty and tolerance were not dimmed by his retirement. In more recent times I have missed having the opportunity to visit with him; I know how much you will miss him now. Please accept my sincerest sympathy.”

This letter comes to us via a friend of the Oxnam descendants, and has never before been offered for sale.