SUPPORT FOR KENNEDY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29366, 19 November 1960, Page 13

SUPPORT FOR KENNEDY

Anti-Catholic Groups NEW YORK, November 18. A number of Protestant church groups—including one that opposed election of a Roman Catholic President pledged prayers and support yesterday for President-elect John Kennedy. Some were tempered with reminders that Mr Kennedy had insisted repeatedly during the campaign that he believed in complete separation of Church and State. He received pledges of cooperation from Protestant church bodies in the Mid-West and the South, where the religious issue was considered most important. The Arkansas Baptist convention, which last year adopted a .resolution opposing the election of a Catholic President, pledged its prayers and support to Mr Kennedy. At Asheville, North Carolina, the evangelist, Billy Graham, told that State’s Baptist convention: “We are told in the Scriptures to fear God and honour Hie king. There will not be a day that I will not remember Mr Kennedy in my prayers. He will need the prayers of Protestants everywhere as he undertakes the most, awesome responsibility of any President in history.” Mr Graham said: "We should support him.. He is our President ... He is my President.”

Mr Kennedy has spent the last two days conferring with the Vice-President-elect. Mr Lyndon Johnson, at the lattgr's ranch near Johnson City. Texas. Before flying back to Palm Beach. Florida. Mr Kennedy issued a statement that he and Mr Johnson had “a long and profitable discussion of plans and programmes for our Administration.”