Many Americans proclaim that they are a "Christian" nation, even though its own founding documents prescribed no religious alignment. It's not hard to figure out why.
When the printing press was invented, the Church was against it because it did not want the knowledge of the scriptures to be accessible by commoners; it wanted control over how the scriptures were interpreted to keep the common folk acted in line with the Church's interests.
For the most part, their fears were unfounded. Even today, with near-universal literacy rates, the average religious American has not actually read their holy book. They rely instead on preachers and the media to interpret the text for them, hence America's widespread endorsements of the "prosperity gospel" and "empathy is a sin".
It was supposed to be once the bread and circuses became unaffordable, but we're all so overworked that we don't have the energy to punch up.