Good thread, and I will add…early America was a blend of Evangelicals (like the Mathers), Freemasons (like B. Franklin and George Washington), Religious free-thinkers (like Roger Williams) along w the unaffiliated. Williams created a religious safe haven for Jews (and later Freemasons) in 1600s Rhode Island (which he originated as anti-slave, with legal equity w Native Americans). He initiated the concepts of religious freedom and church/state separation, later reinforced by several founding fathers. The Puritans were a type of "Evangelical", good people (nice to their families, well-intended) but rather poor leaders who failed with Native Americans. Before and during the Revolution, there was large Freemason membership in revolutionary "safety committees" (think Freemason Paul Revere here), at a time when maybe 50% of colonists were loyalists. Most Freemasons also attend(ed) mainstream churches, but are Deist in the sense that they view the world's religions broadly, so as to include Science and egalitarian leadership (under the guidance of a single supreme God). Freemasons may also have Gnostic and Judaism threads in the Templar tradition (a kind of Roman Catholic hedge). Franklin/Washington were inclusive of the "Evangelicals", as they knew we could not create a Nation without their help. Note that there were few Catholics in early America (that came later)...most early colonists were here to escape them! I will end with the statement that Freemasons and Boy Scouts of America both require belief in a supreme being (in a kind of practical, generic sense), yet no one demonizes or fears the scouts. I’m not a Freemason, but I believe they do not get near enough credit for the founding of our Nation. I’m not French, Jewish, Scots-Irish, or African American either, but one would have to say that each also contributed greatly to our Nation’s beginnings. Modern Evangelicals are somewhat revisionist and display a fear of some as worthy (and perhaps wiser?) than they…