March 10, 2010

Archbishop challenges JFK’s Houston remarks 50 years later

By Anna Maria Basquez

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., advocated for politicians to give a public face to faith last week at Houston Baptist University, sharing perspectives on JFK’s 1960 Houston remarks near the 50th anniversary of the late president’s speech. 

“To his credit,” Archbishop Chaput said, “Kennedy said that if his duties as president should ‘ever require me to violate my conscious or violate the national interest, I would resign the office.’ He also warned that he would not ‘disavow my views or my church in order to win this election.’ But in its effect, the Houston speech did exactly that. It began the project of walling religion away from the process of governance in a new and aggressive way. It also divided a person’s private beliefs from his or her public duties.”

The archbishop spoke on March 1 to an audience of more than 400. This was the first time Houston Baptist has brought in a member of the Catholic hierarchy to speak, said Hunter Baker, provost and author of “The End of Secularism.”

“The archbishop’s speech was a landmark event for our university,” Baker said. “It was especially powerful because the separation of church and state is a key Baptist issue and, historically, Baptists have been suspicious of Catholics in that regard. Our invitation to the archbishop shows that much ice has thawed during the past few decades. His choice of JFK’s speech to the Houston Ministerial Association 50 years ago as the foundation of his speech was perfect. … As Baptists we are much more interested in standing with Catholics today than we were many years ago.”

The event caught the attention of the secular press both globally and nationally, both online and off. Since his talk, Catholic research and editorial Web sites in countries including Canada and Australia have posted links to the archbishop’s talk online. Widespread sources are blogging about it.

J. Fraser Field, managing editor at the Canada-based Catholic Education Resource Center, also posted the video on www.catholiceducation.org.

Field said the archbishop reminded the audience JFK’s speech suggested “religious views could be privately held, but should have no public face. That wrong understanding has seriously weakened the quality and tone of public life in America and has left politics in general in the United States in a degraded state.”  

Archbishop Chaput said Kennedy didn’t create the trends in American politics that he mentioned, “But at least for Catholics, his Houston speech clearly fed them.

“Too many live their faith as if it were a private idiosyncrasy—the kind that they’ll never allow to become a public nuisance,” he said. “And too many just don’t really believe.  Maybe it’s different in Protestant circles.  But I hope you’ll forgive me if I say, ‘I doubt it.’”

Secondly, the archbishop cited Jesuit scholar John Courtney Murray in saying Christianity is not primarily about politics, but about living and sharing the love of God.

“Christian faith is not a set of ethics or doctrines,” Archbishop Chaput said. “It’s not a group of theories about social and economic justice. … A Christian life begins in a relationship with Jesus Christ; and it bears fruit in the justice, mercy and love we show to others because of that relationship. … Without a passion for Jesus Christ in our hearts that reshapes our lives, Christianity is just a word game and a legend.” 

Thirdly, the archbishop noted the realities Christians face today and what they need to do about them. He highlighted abortion among the concerns that divide people, and churches among a list including obligations to the poor, questions of war and peace, and national confusion about sexual identity and human nature.

“But in the meantime, in seeking to live the Gospel we claim to believe, we find friends and brothers in unforeseen places, unlikely places; and when that happens, even a foreign place can seem like one’s home,” he said. “Our job is to love God, preach Jesus Christ, serve and defend God’s people, and sanctify the world as his agents.  To do that work, we need to be one … really one, perfectly one, in mind and heart and action, as Christ intended.

“We live in a country that was once—despite its sins and flaws—deeply shaped by Christian faith,” he continued.  “It can be so again.  But we will do that together, or we won’t do it at all.” 

“Fifty years after President Kennedy’s address, it’s an appropriate time to take stock of the new relationship between religion and public policy which emerged after his election,” said Michael Cook, Australia-based editor of Mercatornet. “It needs someone of Chaput’s intellectual stature and prestige to draw it into the public debate."

Watch Video

Read the archbishop’s talk “The Vocation of Christians in American Public Life”  and watch a video of the talk at www.archden.org.