Trash the Constitution': Atheist Billboard in TX Quotes JFK's 'Absolute' 'Separation of Church & State' Speech

It's been a while since non-believers have posted a billboard worth noting. But, alas, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a secularist group that works to advance the atheist agenda, has posted a new billboard in Lubbock, Texas, featuring President John F. Kennedy.

On July 5, just hours after the national celebrated Independence Day, the group proudly promoted the billboard in a blog post on its web site entitled, "Texans Faced With Secular Speed Bump." The article describes the billboard as being 14 feet by 48 feet and says that it is located on the west side of Interstate 27.

Conveniently, this is near the Lubbock International Airport -- guaranteeing that many eyes will be set upon the sign. The FFRF reports that the billboard, which reads, "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," will be up for at least six months.

The JFK quote invoked on the atheist sign comes from a speech that the deceased president made when he was a candidate in 1960. Kennedy, as the FFRF notes, was speaking to the Houston Ministerial Association when he uttered the controversial comments. Here is a longer portion of Kennedy’s famed speech on faith:

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials; and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

Earlier this year, former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum caught heat after saying that he almost "threw up" after hearing the Kennedy speech. But the FFRF's co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor couldn't disagree with Santorum more, as she calls Kennedy's words "breathtaking."

"We've gone from a nation where politicians once had to show reverence for the First Amendment principle of separation between state and church to one where they wear religion on their sleeves and think they have to trash the Constitution to get elected," added FFRF co-president -- and Gaylor's husband -- Dan Barker.

The billboard was made possible to the FFRF by a donation from one of its Houston-based members.