“I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.”

— John F. Kennedy

1960, Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
Context: That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe — a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

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John F. Kennedy 469

35th president of the United States of America 1917–1963

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1960, Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
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