used the copy of the Qur'an once owned by Thomas Jefferson. A Gallup Poll released in 2019 indicated that 60% of Americans would be willing to vote for an atheist as president. Research shows that candidates that are perceived to be religious are considered more trustworthy. A 2020 PRRI American Values Survey found that of Democrat voters, 42% were Protestant while 23% identified as Catholic. The same survey found that of Republican voters, 54% were Protestant while 18% were Catholic. Separation of church and state In the 1780-1820s in New England the dominant Federalist Party was closely linked to the Congregational church; when the party collapsed, the church was disestablished. In 1800, and others elections, Federalists targeted infidelity in any form. They repeatedly charged that Republican candidates, especially Thomas Jefferson himself, were atheistic or nonreligious. Conversely, the Baptists, Methodists and other dissenters, and the religiously nonaligned, favored the Republican cause. The Baptists, in particular, made the disestablishment one of their founding principles. Hence Jefferson chose the Baptists of Connecticut to pronounce there should be a "wall of separation" between church and state. The separation of church and state is a legal and political principle which advocates derive from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, where Jefferson spoke of the combined effect of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. It has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court. Robert N. Bellah has argued in his writings that although the separation of church and state is grounded firmly in the constitution of the United States, this does not mean that there is no religious dimension in the political society of the United States. He argued that in effect there is an American civil religion which is a nonsectarian faith with sacred symbols drawn from national history. Scholars have portrayed it as a cohesive force, a common set of values that foster social and cultural integration. Bellah's 1967 article analyzes the inaugural speech of John F. Kennedy: "Considering the separation of church and state, how is a president justified in using