In response specifically to your post, I give you Mr. Jefferson:
""History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."
Personally, I don't feel nostalgic for the era depicted in these pictures, where people lived in poverty (with double-digit unemployment) in tenements and shacks. They also elected the most left-wing government in American history at that time, one which included closet communists. But, hey, at least they prayed!
The rot that has become of America cannot be merely blamed on lack of religion. African Americans, after all, are the most religious demographic in the United States, yet suffer disproportionately from social pathologies. It lies in the growing dependence on the state and on a therepeutic culture the replaced self-reliance with "feelings."
more like today than I thought.
You all are right with your analysis on the religious aspect. I also think it has to do with Patriotism. The leftist knew back then they couldn't do the whole"America is a stupid,backward,ignorant, nations" thing, at least out in public because people still had pride in their country, they wanted to be Americans.
Sadly today many people think being an American is a bad thing.