The article from the AP reprinted in The Press supporting John F. Kennedy Jr.'s position on the separation of church and state got it badly wrong. The article questions Santorum's recent criticism of Kennedy's speech and implies that he was not well informed about that 1960 speech. In point of fact, Kennedy was among the worst qualified leaders in history to deliver a speech on what Christianity and its values mean from the perspective of governing this great nation.

Kennedy was officially a Catholic - that much is true. When he was assassinated, his papers were deliberately sealed for the maximum amount of time allowed, which recently expired (2011) and allowed researchers access to the true man. Like many others who went through the U.S. school system, I learned JFK was nearly a saint and that his unfortunate death brought one of our country's greatest leadership eras to an untimely halt. While I have great respect for any president of this great country, history was very kind to JFK. The truth is quite different.

The true Kennedy was in fact a surprisingly immoral man who was addicted to drugs, regularly lied both to the press and his colleagues, and was a prolific philanderer. One of the first books to come out now that his personal papers are available is "Berlin 1961" which focuses on the epicenter for the start of the costly Cold War, the construction of the Berlin Wall that tore families and lives apart, and the shockingly poor decision making that Kennedy and his team made. Not central to the book, but plentiful throughout, are examples of his immorality and his low regard for Christian values - all directly from his personal papers.

The real JFK had a staffer assigned to help him secure female companionship wherever he traveled. Both before and after his election, he was a Christian only when it was helpful to him and his self centeredness was legendary. He was inexperienced in his leadership and ignored his staff's pleas to study prepared negotiating positions before meeting with Khrushchev. In a contest of skill that was widely known at the time as THE critical moment that would shape the fate of our country, Kennedy instead partied and at the subsequent summit Khrushchev literally won every single point. Khrushchev's papers after the meeting revealed that he was puzzled the U.S. had sent an inexperienced "school boy." Kennedy's papers admit that he was completely unprepared. As a result, the Soviets began building the wall in an escalating series of U.S. vs Soviet moves that cost untold lives, trillions of dollars and eventually brought the Russian economy to its knees and created ghastly suffering of its people as a result.

I don't mean this as the second assassination of Kennedy, but to point out that criticizing Santorum as the AP article does, ignores what we now know about Kennedy. He was the worst kind of Christian - one who publicly wore the label of faith to seek personal advantage, but in reality had no meaningful Christian faith. People seeking religious meaning in their lives regularly cite examples of immorality by religious leaders as their lack of interest and Kennedy was a perfect example of the worst.

Santorum's point was that Kennedy's speech declaring a solid wall between faith and governing meant that the principles of strong personal values and an accurate moral compass when guiding this country were thrown out with the bathwater. No, the government should not legislate, encourage or discourage the exercise of free religion. But yes, the government should use the morals and values espoused by virtually every religion on the planet to guide their decision making. There is a clear and obvious difference in these two approaches to governing and the founding fathers knew this, and made it very clear in our country's documents.

We now know that Kennedy's speech was more a reflection of his personal lack of religious values, than a desire to safeguard against a nonexistent threat to the leadership ingredients of the U.S. In the intervening 50 years, politicians have felt it their duty to continue Kennedy's tradition of governing in a moral vacuum and this country is poorer as a result. Santorum got it right - Kennedy got it wrong.

Doug Miller is a Hayden resident.