The case for a “Christian” Declaration of Independence revolves around the reference to a “Creator” who is the source of our natural rights. Without the “Creator,” it wouldn’t make sense to identify a natural condition as a “right.” And so, as the story goes, the drafters of the Declaration must have been Christians.
Well, not really. The use of the term”Creator” rather than just “God” is important here. It would have been the most obvious thing in the world to say “God” rather than “Creator,” so the choice of wording was intended to be meaningful.
“Creator” is completely consistent with Deism, and there is plenty of collateral evidence to show that many of the Founding Fathers were, in fact, Deists, not orthodox Christians. It is, therefore, a clear mistake to attribute an orthodox Christian slant to the Declaration.