Is there a Protestant Conspiracy in the USA Presidency?

56% of Americans are Protestants, and 28% of Americans are Roman Catholic: a 2:1 ratio. 42 USA Presidents have been Protestant, while only 1 has been Roman Catholic: a 42:1 ratio. Why are these ratios not even close to being equal? Are there many powerful and secretive Protestant Societies that discriminate against Roman Catholics?

Wasn't the only Catholic US president ever John F. Kennedy?

I'm not really sure why, but I did notice the points you make a few months ago when looking into JFK a bit. It might be a simple case of people being more likely to vote for somebody whose religious and moral values coincide with their own, meaning that the majority religion tends to win each time when there is competition between the two.

I'm not aware of any secret society that cares what religion you belong to, or limits membership to only certain religion(s). (but then, if i was, they wouldn't be secret...)

Hi GreatTech, DragonsDemesne:

GreatTech >> Why are these ratios not even close to being equal?

Dragon >> It might be a simple case of people being more likely to vote for somebody whose religious and moral values coincide with their own, meaning that the majority religion tends to win each time when there is competition between the two.

Thank you for stating the obvious answer to GreatTech’s query. I started a reply to him yesterday and deleted it over the obvious nature of the answer. If a high school contains a majority of boys by even a very slim margin over a ten year period, and every student votes according to his sex, then the male candidate will defeat the female candidate 100 percent of the time. The enormous 2 to 1 ratio of Great’s example reveals that even a single Roman Catholic taking office is a very large victory for that particular candidate. Everyone loves living in a Republican society, until their views are counted among the minority of voters. : 0 )

In Christ Jesus,

Terral


[edit on 24-9-2006 by Terral]

Originally posted by GreatTech
Are there many powerful and secretive Protestant Societies that discriminate against Roman Catholics?

The KKK would be one. Catholics have been discriminated against in the US for a long time, especially in the older periods. When religious affiliation was important to people, that meant that the majority ruled, and thus there'd be only protestant presidents. But in the more modern time, I think people just ignore the religious affiliation, at least when it comes to protestan v catholic.

At the same time, I'd suspect that the only people it makes a difference to are radical protestants, whereas most catholics wouldn't necessarily not vote for a person because he is protestant, nor vote for someone merely because he is catholic.

And that 'modern period' ain't so large, JFK, the only catholic president, faced anti-catholic bigotry while running. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing did happen with a viable catholic candidate today. "Who's he going to support, america or the pope', etc.

Imagine if there was a catholic president today, there'd definitly be people screaming that he's in the pope's pocket.

terral
Thank you for stating the obvious answer to GreatTech’s query

I don't think its quite so obvious though. I mean, would you, or anyone you know, not vote for a guy because he's not catholic? Or specifically because he's a protestant? Whats the largest protestant denomination, are they also the largest holder of presidential offices? Most people don't even consider religion when it comes down to it, at least within christianity. But in the past, there definitly was anti-catholic aggitation.

[edit on 24-9-2006 by Nygdan]

Originally posted by Nygdan
I mean, would you, or anyone you know, not vote for a guy because he's not catholic? Or specifically because he's a protestant?

You just reminded me of how much I hated living in Alabama ...

We were stuck living there for 9 years. Just before we left, Joe Lieberman was on the VP ticket with Al Gore. There were actually letters sent to the Huntsville Times, and published in all their 'glory' , from people saying that they absolutely wouldn't ever vote for a non-christian. They refused to vote for Lieberman, or even listen to anything he stood for, because he was Jewish. Yes .. they said 'because he's Jewish' and 'because he isn't christian'.

These people boldly signed their names to these letters; sent them to the Huntsville Times; and the Times actually printed them in the letters section.

The Huntsville Times printed a lot of fundamentalist tripe ... LOTS of anti-Catholic letters ... like about how Catholics were all going to hell for believing in Mary's Ascention (the whacks writing in didn't even get the anti-catholic stuff right, Catholics don't believe in Mary's Ascention, they believe in her Assumption which theologically is totally different)

I'm sure those people who wrote in with those letters wouldn't ever vote for a catholic.

So Nygdan, while you and I wouldn't vote for (or against) someone due to religion, there were vast numbers in Alabama who definately voted against people simply because of the candidate's religion. Those folks ARE out there. Sad, but true.



[edit on 9/24/2006 by FlyersFan]

FlyersFan


I know exactly what you feel, when I came to the US from a very predominant Catholic rule in my Island.

It was a cultural shock to see that here the Catholic church was not in charge but protestants.

But protestants has also taken over my Island since the last time I was there. They have no problem pushing their politics to the masses and we all know that religion and politics is a big deal.

Nygdan, thank you for you a lot of clarification. I do not believe there is an obvious answer. Protestants have so much power in the USA that Catholics do not even contend for party nomination. To me, it is complete disenfranchisement at the Presidential level. What is the mechanism within religion, politics, and secret societies that creates this?

I think at the heart of it, it's a class thing. When the Irish began to arrive in droves during the potato famine in the mid-1800's, they were largely Catholic, poor, uneducated and unwashed. The Irish were looked down upon just as much as any black slave was before Emancipation. If you don't believe this, study up on the Irish in America. So because the Irish were largely Catholic and this was largely a Protestant country, even in that time, Catholicism was seen as a Pagan religion, practiced by those barbarians or some such. The prejudice against the Irish died away, but not the prejudice against Catholicism. I say it's a class thing, because in the upper echelons, a successful man still needs to be WASP; White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. And since it only takes two people to have a conspiracy, well, it may well be a conspiracy to keep anyone but Protestants out of office, who knows?

forestlady, are you Irish? Were Italians Catholic, poor, uneducated, and unwashed? Do you think that heads of government in "WASP" countries have more power than the Pope? If so, is this power in earth life or the Afterlife?