Separation of Church and State in John F. Kennedy Presidential Campaign of 1960

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Research Background1

Research aims and objectives2

Research Questions2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW3

Separation of the Church and State3

The Presidential Campaign of 19606

Candidates Involved6

Religious bias in Campaign of 19607

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY9

Research Methodology9

Data Collection Procedure9

Data Sources10

Limitations10

Validity10

Reliability11

Ethical Considerations12

REFERENCES14

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Research Background

The elections of 1960's were dominated by increasing tension due to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and The United States. The Soviet Union launched their first manmade satellite with the name of Sputnik. Public's opinion and polls depicted that around more than half of the public of the America were of the opinion that having war with Soviet Union is their destiny.

Even though, the citizens of US did have the opportunity to give their votes in a number of various offices at states level, local levels and national levels, the presidential elections held every four years, were the main focusing point of the processes of American politics. Due to the leading role played by the president as the national leader in foreign and domestic policies and as the only official to be elected having a national constituency, the presidential elections have always received the prior attention of the mass media, public and politicians. Moreover, due to the importance of US in International Affairs, the presidential elections of United States always has great fan following.

John F. Kennedy brought up the issue of Separation of church and state, which has been there since a very long time. “Separation of church and state” is one of the most commonly used symbols, which is highly recognized among the historians. It is defined as the rule that church should stay out of the business of the state and, similarly state should stay out of the business of the church. Since the metaphor is so commonly used, majority of the people believe that it is a part of the constitution. This metaphor was originally developed by Tomas Jefferson in 1802.

Research aims and objectives

The main aim of this research is to analyse the reason behind the separation. The research will be conducted in the light of following objective:

Analyse different aspects of the 1960's campaign

Analyse the background of the separation of state and church issue

Analyse the steps taken by the court in order to deal with the issues of state and church separation

Analyse the relation between the metaphor of separation of church and state, and the presidential elections of 1960

Research Questions

Following are the research questions that this paper is going to address:

What are the different aspects of separation of state and church issues?

What is the background of wall of separation of church and state?

What are the different steps taken by the Court to address the issue of church and state separation?

What is the relation between the separation metaphor and presidential elections of 1960?

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Separation of the Church and State

The metaphor of separation of state and church which has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson and as it has been quoted by the Supreme ...