TED KENNEDY SPEECH TO THE MORAL MAJORITY
This essay discusses a speech given by Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy at Liberty Baptist College in Lynchburg, Virginia on October 3, 1983 to 5,000 students and townspeople, most of whom were adherents of the Reverend Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, analyzes its background, goals and rhetorical obstacles and evaluates the strategies used by the speaker for overcoming those obstacles as well as the success or failure of the speech.
Senator Kennedy's speech which was entitled "Truth and Tolerance in America" came about in part by accident. Through a computer error, Senator Kennedy was included in mid-May, 1983 on a mass membership solicitation mailing of the Moral Majority and was offered Membership No. B0500878. The Senator's office leaked the error to the New York Times which wrote a humorous article about it (Wrong B 12). Senator Kennedy told Cal Thomas, a Vice President of the Moral Majority that "he knew [you] are not at all happy with President Reagan but this is ridiculous" (A 30).
Thomas told the New York Times that the membership offer would not be withdrawn, stating that "we'll offer him an opportunity to atone for his past political sins. No man is beyond redemption" (Wrong B 12). Kennedy showed no interest in becoming a member but when Thomas invited him to visit Liberty Baptist College, he offered to speak there. After considering the matter, Falwell arranged the speech and sent his private plane to transport the Senator, his sister Jean Smith and his daughter Kara to Lynchburg.
Senator Kennedy has at various times in his career spoken out on the subject of religious tolerance and in favor of the separation of church and state. His brother, John Kennedy, had defused the religious issue in the 1960 presidential campaign by his speech to Protestant ministers in Houston in which he reassured them that a Catholic president would honor the First Amendment's prohibition against...