Ira Stoll, in his book JFK, Conservative, wrote “On July 4, 1946, John F. Kennedy, then 29 years old, the Democratic nominee for a Massachusetts Congressional seat, and still a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, was the featured speaker at the City of Boston’s Independence Day celebration. He spoke at Faneuil Hall, the red-brick building where long ago the colonists had gathered to protest taxes imposed by King George III and his Parliament. “Kennedy began by talking not about taxes, or about the British, or about the consent of the governed, but about religion. ‘The informing spirit of the American character has always been a deep religious sense. Throughout the years, down to the present, a devotion to fundamental religious principles has characterized American though and action,’ he said. “For anyone wondering what this had to do with Independence Day, Kennedy made the connection explicit. ‘Our government was founded on the essential religious idea of integrity of the individual. It was this religious sense which inspired the authors of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”’
“Whatever Kennedy’s motives were as a politician for emphasizing this point, on the historical substance he had it absolutely correct. The Declaration of Independence issued from Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, included four separate references to God. In addition to the ‘endowed by their Creator’ line mentioned by JFK in his July 4 speech, there is an opening salute to ‘the laws of nature’s God,’ an appeal to ‘the Supreme Judge of the World,’ and a closing expression of ‘firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.’ So amid all the fireworks and barbecue smoke this July 4, consider pausing for a moment to reflect on the one our founding fathers called the Creator. As Kennedy realized, the American Revolution, and thus the country we live in today, started with God, and with the Founders’ belief in rights that are his gift to us. Whatever your religious views, or lack of them, if you are an American, it’s at least worth understanding the idea on which our nation was founded.”