Nobody ever mistook me for an academic or scholar, but wasn't the point about the United States the separation of church and state? Here in England we grow more and more secular every day as church attendance plummets, yet you guys have the so-called 'Bible-Belt', and even on my 1923 silver dollar (which you and I have discussed previously) it says 'In God We Trust!
Yes, you are correct.
But I'd say ALL of the Western World...and specifically the U.S. were formed and are based upon Christian / Judaic principles....
People did leave England and come to the U.S.....at the beginning to escape religious persecution.
But they didn't come to the U.S.....so they could be Hindus or Muslims......they came to evade religious persecution to their particular sect or schism of Christianity.....in England and the Continent... ( Lutherans from Germany are another example...)
I believe it was the Puritans and Quakers that showed up first.....
I don't know much of the religious time line in England....Don't know when the Church of England was formed.....as that Country turned away from the Vatican....
To answer your question....I think there is a great deal of Separation of Church and State here in the U.S. but.......this Country was still founded upon Christian and Jewish traditions.....
I think that the Constitution's words about "Separation of Church and State" are now and have been "re-interpreted" to have a much broader meaning.....than originally intended.
It seem to me these "new" interpretations of "separation of Church and State" and "freedom of religion" are what groups like the Cult of Hubbard have been exploiting.....to maneuver themselves into power and growth....
And even with these Laws of the Land....the Cult of Hubbard still had to do criminal, crazy, and hidden operations....to "get along."