I have long thought that Anglo-American culture has, for the most part, had a serious problem with its inability or unwillingness to distinguish the authority of God from the authority of the state. While reading about the Egnlish Reformation, and the fact that English monarchs had long exercised a fair degree of control over the Church even prior to Henry VIII’s decision to divorce Catherine of Aragon, I ran across this comment on English religion from Venetian ambassor to England Giovanni Micheli. I think it pretty well describes the relationship many Americans have to their state — and the “religious” nature of executive power:

The English regard and practice their religion only insofar as it relates to their duties as subjects of the king. They live as he lives and believe as he believes; indeed, they do everything he commands… [T]hey would accept Mohammedanism or Judaism if the king believed it, and told them to believe in it.

The Best of Charles H. Featherstone