I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.

Twenty years ago this fall, in New York City, President Kennedy met for the last time with a Protestant assembly. The atmosphere had been transformed since his earlier address during the 1960 campaign to the Houston Ministerial Association. He had spoken there to allay suspicions about his Catholicism, and to answer those who claimed that on the day of his baptism, he was somehow disqualified from becoming President. His speech in Houston and then his election drove that prejudice from the center of our national life. Now, three years later, in November of 1963, he was appearing before the Protestant Council of New York City to reaffirm what he regarded as some fundamental truths. On that occasion, John Kennedy said: “The family of man is not limited to a single race or religion, to a single city, or country...the family of man is nearly 3 billion strong. Most of its members are not white and most of them are not Christian. And as President Kennedy reflected on that reality, he restated an ideal for which he had lived his life -- that “the members of this family should be at peace with one another.

That ideal shines across all the generations of our history and all the ages of our faith, carrying with it the most ancient dream. For as the Apostle Paul wrote long ago in Romans: “If it be possible, as much as it lieth in you, live peaceable with all men.

【美国经典英文演讲100篇:＂Truth and Tolerance in America＂】相关文章：

★ 第26届世界大学生夏季运动会组织委员会副主席王荣致辞

★ 八段经典演讲节选（中英文对照）

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:1980 DNC Address

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:40th Anniversary of D-Day Address

★ 克林顿在香港关于美国亚太地区政策的演讲口译3

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:1992 DNC Address

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:Address on Taking the Oath of Office

★ 演讲好比考试

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:Sproul Hall Sit-in Speech

★ 美国新任驻华大使骆家辉宣誓就职仪式（视频）