No, please don’t do that. You were not “wrong” per se, just misinformed (and so was I, to some extent). And, then, you looked it up, posted great site links, and said you were wrong. NO, we need MORE folks like this in GD!! Please?
I believe there is one unique American aspect of religion that should not be overlooked.
Studies have shown that Americans are the most religiously oriented population of any western country. They go to church more often etc. But at the same time, Americans have more of tendency to reform their religion to their own liking than other nations do. This is possibly due to democratic traditions. But whatever the reason, I have been told this by several European friends of mine. Furthemore, the Catholic Church appears to have more trouble with enforcing it’s dogmatic views in America than it does elsewhere. In other words, the attitude in Europe is “religion says this, I don’t buy it, therefore I see myself as secular”. In America the attitute is more like “religion says this? I don’t buy it, therefore religion must actually be saying something else”.
To the extent that fundamentalism can be seen as a rebellion against liberal tendencies in organized religion, the above may acount for it’s stronger prescence in America.