[wideawake]

The fact is that while most of the colonists were professing and believing Christians, the vast majority were not colonists because of religious motives, but economic.

And truth be told, the Pilgrims themselves were more motivated by a distaste for life in Holland than fear of persecution.

The evangelical vision of the colonists as a uniform squadron of zealous true believers is as ahistorical as the secularist view of the Founding Fathers as a crew of faithless radicals. Brewster and Jefferson were outliers, not representatives.

[Smokin' Joe]

The fact is that while most of the colonists were professing and believing Christians, the vast majority were not colonists because of religious motives, but economic.

Perhaps, but the Maryland colony was founded on the basis of freedom of religion, by Catholics.