Abstract
My grandfather James B. Murphy sponsored John F. Kennedy’s admission into the second and third degrees of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization. As a Catholic who attended daily mass, Mr. Murphy seemed proud that Kennedy’s victory against anti-Catholic prejudice proved that his grandson might achieve the nation’s highest office. He kept a picture of himself with Kennedy in his office. Steven J. Danenberg, the headmaster of the Williams School, a private (independent) day school that I attended in the 1980s, also held Kennedy in high esteem, but for a completely different reason. As an agnostic and a humanist, Mr. Danenberg had two heroes, Captain James T. Kirk (of the television program Star Trek) and John Kennedy, who symbolized for him a secular faith in science and progress. Having spent two years in Venezuela as a Peace Corps volunteer, he viewed Kennedy’s call to public service as an inspiration for educators ambitious to inspire critical thought and intellectual curiosity in young people.
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Notes
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© 2007 Mark J. Rozell and Gleaves Whitney
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Carty, T.J. (2007). Secular Icon or Catholic Hero?: Religion and the Presidency of John F. Kennedy. In: Rozell, M.J., Whitney, G. (eds) Religion and the American Presidency. The Evolving American Presidency Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230604155_8
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