[bobthepanda]

shared religious beliefs, is possibly the biggest lie. As recently as the '60s there were questions about whether people would accept a "papist" president in the form of JFK. at least part of the reason why the separation of church and state existed was because otherwise it would've meant picking one of the many versions of Christianity or otherwise that had sought refuge in the US, which would mean excluding the others. The Quakers, the Puritans, the Pilgrims, the Catholics, the Anglicans, etc. were all very different and had very different opinions of each other.

[ljsprague]

Yes because America was formerly a Protestant country.

[bobthepanda]

This isn’t even strictly true; Maryland, one of the original colonies, was founded as a haven for Catholics and named after a Catholic queen.

[ljsprague]

When was our first Catholic president?