Bill Moyers was Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson's Chief-of-Staff and has been a White House speechwriter and television producer for decades. His interviews of Joseph Campbell on mythmaking are highly regarded by some. George Lucas admired Cambpell and based his Star-Wars Trilogy on the father-son and coming-of-age themes highlighted by him. Moyers is also a minister of religion, so when he describes what's going on in the country in the field of religious belief, it's worth considering what he says.
Why are we interested in religious belief in America when studying U.S. Constitutional Law?
Because religious attitudes are moral attitudes are political attitudes, and political attitudes determine legislation, determine presidents who select judges who pass on the legality of such legislation, and who decide cases and write court decisions setting forth their philosophy of law. We read their opinions and call it law.
These components: religion, morality, politics, and law, may be distinguishable, but are often part of the same continuum of attitude-politics-law.
We may try to keep religious and political attitudes in separate boxes, to achieve separation of church and state, for example, but don't ever think they aren't very close and awfully intertwined. Hence the notion, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Try to imagine Iraq separating church and state as it tries to reconstitute itself democratically following our invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party.
Try to imagine us removing God from the Pledge...
In the continuation, below, is an article Bill Moyers has written on the influence of Christian fundamentalism in America today.
See also the posts here on Jonathan Edwards, the Puritans, and English History, Shakespeare, Elizabeth I, Raleigh, etc., using Google.