It also played into the hands of the Cold War era Birchers who used the idea that claiming religion thinking they could trip up Russian spies thinking that they would not dare claim obeisance to "God" never realizing just how well trained such spies were to blend in and not get caught. The "under God" clause for the Pledge of Allegiance is only there since 1954, and was show horned in, again as part of the anti=-New Deal anti-communist forcing of some brand of Christianity upon all at the time, and it has been going on till now.

I for one do not wish to see a Theocracy take over this Nation, a Christianized version of Iran here would be not cool.
Money out of politics is also needed as we see the rot the corruption it brings. "End Citizens United" so that we can see the government start to shift over to what it should be, Public Service,,,,,,what we have now is careers made thru long seats of self serving pro-corporate types (both parties are guilty of this). There are a few rare exceptions (Sanders/Warren) to name a few.

While the colonists landing were communities centered around their church having escaped from religious persecution they resisted the idea of a government sponsored religion knowing that was what gave them freedom of religion or freedom from religion...

Here is an interesting bit of history from "The Constitution State" (Connecticut) about Thomas Hooker's founding of Hartford:

Hooker arrived in Boston and settled in Newtown (later renamed Cambridge), where he became the pastor of the earliest established church there, known to its members as "The Church of Christ at Cambridge." His congregation, some of whom may have been members of congregations he had served in England, became known as "Mr. Hooker's Company".

Voting in Massachusetts was limited to freemen, individuals who had been formally admitted to their church after a detailed interrogation of their religious views and experiences. Hooker disagreed with this limitation of suffrage, putting him at odds with the influential pastor John Cotton. Owing to his conflict with Cotton and discontented with the suppression of Puritan suffrage and at odds with the colony leadership, Hooker and the Rev. Samuel Stone led a group of about 100 who, in 1636, founded the settlement of Hartford, named for Stone’s place of birth: Hertford, in England.

This led to the founding of the Connecticut Colony. Hooker became more active in politics in Connecticut. The General Court representing Wethersfield, Windsor and Hartford met at the end of May 1638 to frame a written constitution in order to establish a government for the commonwealth. Hooker preached the opening sermon at First Church of Hartford on May 31, declaring that "the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."

On January 14, 1639, freemen from these three settlements ratified the "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut" in what John Fiske called "the first written constitution known to history that created a government. It marked the beginnings of American democracy, of which Thomas Hooker deserves more than any other man to be called the father. The government of the United States today is in lineal descent more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to that of any of the other thirteen colonies."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hooker

There you have it! Long before Thomas Jefferson and his letters with the Danbury Baptists also from nearby Danbury, Connecticut...