Bill Bradley Quotes
The only way to be true to our American tradition is to maintain absolute governmental neutrality regarding religious beliefs and practices.
Bradley, Bill. Time Present, Time Past: A Memoir. Knopf, 1996.
This is a critical quotation on the government establishment of religion issue. There are a few people who have argued over the years that the Founding Fathers and their culture was religious and where they were careful to avoid favoring one religion over another, they did NOT intend to put atheism on the same equal plane as religion as far as government action is concerned. However, some of the Founding Fathers were atheists, and some others like John Adams were deists—they believed in a God but not in the Trinity or in Judaism or any organized religion. So this quotation makes it clear that the First Amendment does NOT favor religion over non religion or secularism. Atheism must be on an equal footing but not on a higher plane.
Kennedy was being hurt be fears that as a Catholic, he would be beholden to the Pope and the Catholic Bishops. There were many protestants who believed that the Catholic Church was antithetical to democracy and some who even believed that Catholicism was the religion of Satan. Kennedy decided to confront the issue head on.
This publication was one of the best selling in the entire history of America. Rarely has a single publication been read by as high a proportion of a population. Those who support the maintenance of a strict separation of Church and State in America often point to this quotation and the popularity of Common Sense as evidence that not only were the founding fathers in favor of strict separation but so was the general Colonial American public.
Ironically, without the word “wicked” most people would regard the first sentence as a good description of elements of a modern democracy. It illustrates that for the Islamic fundamentalist democracy substitutes the rule of man for the rule of God, freedom of speech allows heresy and blasphemy to to uttered and communicated, and religion which is supposed to inform and direct politics. So what is good for the lover of democracy is the very thing that is bad for Islam. This is not a uniquely Islamic viewpoint. It has been and is held by fundamentalist Christians and Jews as well who would return to Biblical law punishing blasphemy and heresy with death and have religion drive all politics.
William Warren Bradley is an American politician and former professional basketball player. He served three terms as a Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey (1979–1997). He ran for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the 2000 election, which he lost to Vice President Al Gore.
