As the old Virginia Slims cigarette commercial would say, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The reference was to women who would no longer have to sneak off to the gazebo to have a smoke.

The same might be said of Catholics when deciding for whom to vote in the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden has become just the second Catholic to be elected president 60 years after it was first done by John F. Kennedy.

In 1960, Kennedy’s Catholicism was a major issue in the election unlike Biden’s this year. Although Kennedy lost many rural counties in 1960, he carried Pennsylvania, 51%-49%.

I did my master’s thesis on the religion issue in the 1960 presidential election, and my extensive two-year research effort turned up significant anti-Catholic sentiment, yet the issue was rarely spoken of publicly.

Many believed that Kennedy won the close election over Republican Richard M. Nixon despite a Catholic backlash, but the University of Michigan Study Team’s exhaustive postelection survey found that Kennedy won the presidency because of the number of Catholics who voted for him because they wanted to see a Catholic finally occupy the White House. Kennedy won nearly 75% of the Catholic vote.

Fast forward 60 years, and the religion question was raised only occasionally during the campaign between Biden and incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and almost exclusively around the issue of abortion.

In Biden, you had a devout Catholic who believes in a woman’s choice. How, other Catholics have asked, can Biden be considered “devout” if he openly embraces pro-choice beliefs, which violate one of the Church’s principal tenets.

While Trump won the overall religion battle - he opposed abortion - he and Biden almost split the Catholic vote evenly. Trump had 50%, while Biden had 49%. Trump captured the support of about eight in 10 white evangelical Christian voters. Trump had prevailed among Catholics 52%-47% when he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. Catholics make up about 20% of registered voters in the United States.

Trump backers said Catholics should not vote for Biden because of his abortion rights views, while Biden supporters said Trump was too divisive, a womanizer and failed to back social justice issues which are key Catholic teachings.

Our area contains some of the most devout Catholics, who are fervently anti-abortion. Based on this, many could not bring themselves to vote for Biden, despite his being a fellow Catholic, even if they might have agreed with him on other issues.

The abortion issue was not front-and-center in 1960. Voters were more concerned about Kennedy’s potential divided loyalties to his country and to his religion. Kennedy addressed this issue head on when he said. “When any man stands on the Capitol and takes the oath of office of president, he is swearing to support the separation of church and state. …”

Internationally known personalities, including the Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author of the mega-selling books “Life Is Worth Living” and “The Power of Positive Thinking” questioned Kennedy’s Catholicism. He claimed American culture was at stake. “I don’t say it won’t survive Kennedy’s election, but it won’t be what it was,” Peale told a group of prominent ministers who organized to oppose Kennedy.

In addition to Kennedy’s religion, his politics were “way too liberal” for conservative-leaning Monroe and Lehigh counties. As East Stroudsburg attorney Kennard Lewis, Kennedy’s campaign chair in Monroe, put it, “If Kennedy had a Lutheran mother, a Presbyterian father and a Methodist grandfather, he still would not have carried the county.”

Kennedy carried Schuylkill County, 50.1%-49.8% and Northampton County 50.4%-49.4% but lost Carbon, 50.3-49.5, Lehigh, 57.6-42.1, and Monroe, 63.7-35.6. In all, Nixon carried 52 Pennsylvania counties to Kennedy’s 15.

This year, Biden carried Lehigh County, 53.2%-45.6%, Monroe County, 52.6%-46.2%, and Northampton County, 49.8%-49.1%, while Trump won Carbon, 65.4%-33.3% and Schuylkill, 69.2%-29.4%. In all, Trump carried 54 Pennsylvania counties to Biden’s 13.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com