Re: Religion, the practice of Religion started innocently enough: Answering questions that couldn't be answered. One could more appropriately say, this is where Mythology was created; from Mythology was born Belief/Faith and thus Religion. It was certainly only a short step from there to the first human using such as a means of control and power over others.
I have never seen an expression of religion that was not an expression of control over the masses. (Control at it's most gentle expression and abject subjugation at it's most extreme.)
Politics and Religion have therefore been inextricably linked for as long as humans have engaged in any form of society.
The uniqueness of a group of people identifying as Christians forming a group politic which sought to keep Religion in all its possible forms from being the driving force of governance was truly an enlightened step forward. (Yes, of course there were still flaws in the implementation to be fixed as we journeyed along this path... but the the goal was plain.)
I don't know when America lost its way, exactly, but we have. Our Melting Pot is seemingly now meant to only be one of White European Christian Hegemony with a distinctly male bent [dominance].
That it is not a majority of people who follow this path, yet seem to call the shots, only makes this worse.