So Help Me God: Religion and the Presidency Since John F. Kennedy
483 views · Published 11 October 2012 · 57:43 · Indexed 21 September 2026
Channel: Harvard Divinity School · 2012 · Education
A talk by Randall Balmer, chair of the Religion Department and Mandel Family Professor of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth College. John F. Kennedy's address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960 ushered in an era of voter indifference to a candidate's faith. This "Kennedy paradigm" persisted until the mid-1970s, when the corruptions of the Nixon administration paved the way for a Southern Baptist Sunday-school teacher to win the White House. The rise of the religious right during Jimmy Carter's presidency once again altered the relationship between religion and presidential politics. But for all of the religious rhetoric on the campaign trail, what does a candidate's faith tell us about how he will govern?
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