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In the US you have a theoretical separation of church and state - yet a large amount of policy and law gets made on the basis of religious lobbying.
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This is very true and one of the reasons they hold disproportionate power is they are fighting for the status quo.
The states were usually made up of one or two religious sects who'd learned to get along, but they didn't trust the other states(sects), so resisted uniting. They liked the idea of splitting from England but saw no reason the couldn't be a small country, like in Europe.
Everyone from constitutional scholars to school children have at least a rough idea how the documents were written and rewritten to get everyone to support the idea of a United States. They had to guaranty the Federal government would not interfere with the religious practices already in place, no official religion, complete separation of church and state.
However, the Federal government was tiny and had little effect on day to day life. The state and local laws, which actually controlled life, were enacted by groups which were far from diverse. So when the law says you must attend church on Sunday and carry a gun to protect your family, nobody bats an eye. Same for a law saying you must be a God fearing man to hold public office.
In days of olde the people lived their religion, and made damn sure their neighbors did too, or they would be invited out of town. So all this theoretical blather about maintaining the lifestyle declared by the founding fathers is a bullshit diversion. That never existed except in history classes that lied. What they really want is to go back to when everybody in town was the same color/religion/education.