Peer Pressure / persecution/ discrimination I would say is up there is why people identified with some religion ? For modern example Scientology in Hollywood

Peer Pressure / persecution/ discrimination I would say is up there is why people identified with some religion ? For modern example Scientology in Hollywood you maybe discriminated against or atheism during McCarthy post war period you would be persecuted or killed if you were jew in Nazi Germany. While by no means completely eliminated, we have kind of gone from genocide -> persecution -> discrimination, so more people are comfortable identifying what they really feel. The discrimination is still strong, today it is almost unimaginable to elect an explicitly atheist president. Being gay/woman/non-white a candidate would face probably lesser discrimination for presidency than not identifying Christian even if they don't practice in meaningful way like say Trump, also being more devout seem to give no advantage either, but not identifying as Christian seems big challenge for office.