I was just reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_affiliations_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States. Washington was believed to only pay lip service to religion, while Jefferson and Lincoln were unaffiliated and sceptical regarding religion. Jefferson and Lincoln have been touted as "deists", "theists" and even "closet atheists".
Was this scepticism and lack of religious affiliation ever held against them by their contemporaries? I ask this question because Americans are very unwilling to elect an atheist president, and presidential candidates need to prove their religiosity. If it's like this today, how come the American people were OK with these 3 presidents not being religious?
I remember a video I believe by Penn Jillette speaking about Christianity as a "united" religion being a recent concept, and that back in the days of Lincoln the most listened to celebrities as speakers were agnostic/atheist/deist individuals who openly criticized religion (Mark Twain was an example.) Unfortunately, I cant for the life of me find that.