couldn't agree more, though the influence of 'Church' in the US is really via tax carve outs and a kind of influence diffused across a wide variety of religious

couldn't agree more, though the influence of 'Church' in the US is really via tax carve outs and a kind of influence diffused across a wide variety of religious institutions and (sometimes hidden) affiliations. There isn't a centralised institution calling the shots, unlike what you see in Christian sects in East Asia (S.Korea, Japan, Taiwan) or with Islamic councils in M/E (Iran, Saudi etc). This actually makes if harder to separate in the US, as the lines aren't always explicit