John F. Kennedy photo

Remarks on Greeting Representatives of the Baptist World Alliance at the White House.

February 02, 1961

I WANT TO EXPRESS my great appreciation for you coming here today and I am most impressed in hearing the litany of places--Japan, Korea, the Congo.

It is a wonderful thing, what you are doing. Some of you will be away for 5 years. You have a great tradition in your denomination of freedom and you can't have religious freedom without political freedom. The people of this country are strongly behind you and any help that we can give should be made known.

As I said in the State of the Union Message--one of the great ironies is that the Communists have been able to secure great devotion to their program and too often our people are identified with a devotion to material things. You are helping to change this.

John F. Kennedy, Remarks on Greeting Representatives of the Baptist World Alliance at the White House. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234937

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