Revolutionary era concepts of what an “established religion” would be were a far, far cry from the way the issue is viewed today. The revolutionary era ideal was that no denomination of Christian church would get the special blessing of Washington. Generic Judeo-Christianity and direct biblical teaching were not even considered controversial. In a country which emerged crying “we have no king but Jesus” that made eminent sense. Now it’s like “we have no king but worldly trends.”
But anyhow. Newt’s view isn’t the most important controversy between Gingrich and Santorum. If anything it seems to hark back to the more purist “we have no king but Jesus.” We respect the pope but he won’t be permitted to dictate American policy and if he tries to use a president to that end then that president will resign rather than be an instrument for that. Showing Newt’s Baptist roots?
Newt doesn’t know the mind of the audience that Kennedy was addressing as well as I do. He needs to read the back issues of the Baptist Standard I read them when they were first published.