I think you may be underestimating the amount of cognitive dissonance (combined with willful ignorance) that many feverantly religious people are capable of. I

I think you may be underestimating the amount of cognitive dissonance (combined with willful ignorance) that many feverantly religious people are capable of. I've argued with quite a few who were convinced that that carving out exceptions for Christians (the extremely "liberal" among them will even accept Catholics) when it comes to these sorts of rules is fine because we are a "Christian nation".