John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th U.S. President
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute—where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote—where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference—and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."
( John F. Kennedy, speech to the Greater Houston ministerial Association during the Presidential campaign, 1960; from Samuel E. Morison, Henry S. Commager, and William E. Leuchtenburg, The Growth of the American Republic, 7th ed., Vol. 2, New York: Oxford University Press, 1980, p. 744. )
James K. Polk (1795-1849) 11th U.S. President
"[T]hank God, under our consitution there was no connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the U.S. I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments to office."
( James K. Polk, from Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Age of Jackson, Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1945, p. 355. )
Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) U.S. Supreme Court Justice
"The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach."
( Hugo Black, majority opinion in Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S., 1947. )
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) 20th U.S. President
"The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community."
( James A. Garfield, 1874 Congressional Record, 2(6):5384; from Gene Garman, America's Real Religion: Separation Between Religion and Government in the United States of America, Pittsburg: America's Real Religion Pub., 1991, p. 104. )
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) 18th U.S. President
"I would also call your attention to the importance of correcting an evil that, if permitted to continue, will probably lead to great trouble in our land before the close of the nineteenth century. It is the acquisition of vast amounts of untaxed church property. [In 1850, I believe, the church property of the United States, which paid no tax, municipal or state, amounted to about $83,000,000. In 1860 the amount had doubled. In 1875 it is about $1,000,000,000. By 1900, without a check, it is safe to say this property will reach a sum exceeding $3,000,000,000. So vast a sum, receiving all the protection and benefits of government without bearing its proportion of the burdens and expenses of the same, will not be looked upon acquiescently by those who have to pay the taxes.] In a growing country, where real estate enhances so rapidly with time as in the United States, there is scarcely a limit to the wealth that may be acquired by corporations, religious or otherwise, if allowed to retain real estate without taxation. The contemplation of so vast a property as here alluded to, without taxation, may lead to sequestration without constitutional authority, and through blood. I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation."
( Ulysses S. Grant in a message to Congress, December 7, 1875, Congressional Record, Vol. 4, part 7, p. 175; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 288. )
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th U.S. President,
"It is my firm belief that there should be separation of church and state in the United States—that is, that both church and state should be free to operate, without interference from each other in their respective areas of jurisdiction. We live in a liberal, democratic society which embraces wide varieties of belief and disbelief. There is no doubt in my mind that the pluralism which has developed under our Constitution, providing as it does a framework within which diverse opinions can exist side by side and by their interaction enrich the whole, is the most ideal system yet devised by man. I cannot conceive of a set of circumstances which would lead me to a different conclusion."
( John F. Kennedy, letter to Glenn L. Archer, February 23, 1959; from Albert Menendez and Edd Doerr, eds., Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002, p. 148. )
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) 18th U.S. President
"Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more perfect security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion. Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that neither the state nor nation, or both combined, shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian, Pagan, or Atheistical tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the Church and the State forever Separate."
( Ulysses S. Grant, address to the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa, September 25, 1875; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1983, pp. 287-288. )
Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) U.S. Supreme Court Justice
"The ‘establishment of religion’ clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever from they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between Church and State.’"
( Hugo Black, majority opinion in Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 1947. )
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th U.S. President
"I hold that in this country there must be complete severance of Church and State; that public moneys shall not be used for the purpose of advancing any particular creed; and therefore that the public schools shall be non-sectarian and no public moneys appropriated for sectarian schools."
( Theodore Roosevelt, New York public address, October 12, 1915. )
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th U.S. President
"To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church, or because, like Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his allegiance to any church, is an outrage against that liberty of conscience which is one of the foundations of American life."
( Theodore Roosevelt, letter to J. C. Martin, November 9, 1908; from Albert Menendez and Edd Doerr, eds., Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002, p. 48. )
Millard Fillmore (1809-1865) 13th U.S. President
"I am tolerant of all creeds. Yet if any sect suffered itself to be used for political objects I would meet it by political opposition. In my view church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact. Religion and politics should not be mingled."
( Millard Fillmore, address during the 1856 presidential election; from Albert Menendez and Edd Doerr, eds., Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002, p. 70. )
Jeremiah S. Black (1810-1883)
"The manifest object of the men who framed the institutions of this country, was to have a State without religion, and a Church without politics—that is to say, they meant that one should never be used as an engine for any purpose of the other, and that no man's rights in one should be tested by his opinions about the other. As the Church takes no note of men's political differences, so the State looks with equal eye on all the modes of religious faith.…Our fathers seem to have been perfectly sincere in their belief that the members of the Church would be more patriotic, and the citizens of the State more religious, by keeping their respective functions entirely separate."
( Jeremiah S. Black [Chief Justice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Attorney General under Buchanan, Secretary of State under Buchanan and Lincoln], speech in 1856; from his Essays and Speeches, New York, 1885, p. 53. )
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) 33rd U.S. President
"As I say, not all of Jefferson's ideas were popular, though most of them were absolutely right.…He was also called an atheist because he didn't believe in a state church, an official church of the government, and in fact made it clear that he didn't much like any church at all, though he did admire many, though not all, of the teachings of religion.…And you'll recall that it was Jefferson, as governor of Virginia, who wrote the Statute of Religious Liberty in 1786, which said that ‘no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship’ but that all people ‘shall be free to profess…their opinion in matters of religion.’ He summed up very bluntly one time his view that no man harmed anyone else in choosing and practicing his own religion, or no religion. ‘It does me no injury,’ he said, ‘for my neighbor to say that there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’"
( Harry Truman, from Margaret Truman, ed., Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman, New York: Warner Books Inc., 1989, pp. 212-213. )
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th U.S. President
"Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts—including the First Amendment and the separation of church and state."
( John F. Kennedy, interview in Look magazine, March 3, 1959; from Albert Menendez and Edd Doerr, eds., Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002, p. 73. )
Harry Andrew Blackmun (1908-1999) U.S. Supreme Court Justice
"The Free Exercise Clause at the very least was designed to guarantee freedom of conscience by prohibiting any degree of compulsion in matters of belief It was offended by a burden on one's religion. The Establishment Clause can be understood as designed in part to ensure that the advancement of religion comes only from the voluntary efforts of its proponents and not from support by the state. Religious groups are to prosper or perish on the intrinsic merit and attraction of their beliefs and practices."
( Harry Blackmun, address at National Archives, Washington, D.C., June 23, 1987; from Albert Menendez and Edd Doerr, eds., Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002, p. 32. )
Jimmy E. Carter (1924) 39th U.S. President
"Last year I was on Pat Robertson's show, and we discussed our basic Christian faith—for instance, separation of church and state. It's contrary to my beliefs to try to exalt Christianity as having some sort of preferential status in the United States. That violates the Constitution. I'm not in favor of mandatory prayer in school or of using public funds to finance religious education."
( Jimmy Carter, Christianity Today, March 2, 1998. )
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th U.S. President
"[T]he Supreme Court has made its judgment and a good many people obviously will disagree with it. Others will agree with it. But I think that it is important for us if we are going to maintain our constitutional principle that we support the Supreme Court decisions even when we may not agree with them. In addition, we have in this case a vary easy remedy and that is to pray ourselves. And I would think that it would be a welcome reminder to every American family that we can pray a good deal more at home, we can attend our churches with a good deal more fidelity, and we can make the true meaning of prayer much more important in the lives of all of our children. That power is very much open to us."
( John F. Kennedy, in 1962 speeking on Engel v. Vitale; from Marvin E. Frankel, Faith and Freedom: Religious Liberty in America, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994, p. 20. )
Marvin E. Frankel (New York, US Federal District Judge)
"A good many people find it comfortable for now, and sufficient, to extol, and propose to enforce, the values of what they call the Judeo-Christian tradition. Theirs is not a long view. Recall again the Islam is the fastest growing religion. It may or may not come to predominate. We can be nearly certain, however, that the current state of affairs will not endure. Today's Protestant minority in the United States may thank its ancestors who fashioned decent places for minorities when they were the majority. Today's power structure should be preserving that tradition. It is the essence of the Bill of Rights.
"The subject of power is not a simple matter of which majority sits on which minority at any given time. Looking around the world today and back through history, we see the horrors to which interreligious conflicts can lead—Muslims versus Hindus, Orthodox Eastern Serbs and Croatian Roman Catholics against Bosnian Muslims, Catholics versus Protestants in much Europe after the sixteenth century, not to omit our own lesser, but horrible, history of persecutions in colonial America and the martyrdom of Joseph Smith as well as a number of his Mormon followers. We see, too, the fragility of the lessons these oceans of blood should have taught. The powerless call out for tolerance. Achieving power, they may soon forget. The descendants of Rome's Christian martyrs remember too well the role of the tortures rather than the agonies of their own ancestors. […] As was said at the outset of this chapter, the vice in being too sure for our purposes is the deposition to impose your beliefs and your forms of religious conduct on others. That attitude is the enemy of religious freedom. It is the remembered and hated form of oppression against which the First Amendment was drawn."
( Marvin E. Frankel, Faith and Freedom: Religious Liberty in America, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994, pp. 111-112. )
Robert L. Maddox
"The presidency of Andrew Jackson [7th U. S. President, 1829-1837] had its effect on religious life. An ardent church/state separationist, Jackson dissociated himself from any religious denomination, though he had been reared a Presbyterian. On numerous occasions he made pronouncements that fostered religious liberty and toleration in the new country."
( Robert L. Maddox, Separation of Church and State, New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1987, p. 75. )
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
"Total separation of church and state was considered the best safeguard for the health of each. As [Andrew] Jackson explained, in refusing to name a fast day, he feared to ‘disturb the security which religion now enjoys in this country, in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.’"
( Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Age of Jackson, Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1945, p. 354. )
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