> The distinctive anti-intellectualist bent of the US
> religiosity that sets it apart from European churches (Catholic and
> Protestant alike) was a response to the social conditions that prevailed in
> the colonies.
I would say it's older than the colonies. There are strong elements of Protestantism in Scotland and Northern Ireland which are very similar to the kind of backwards American Protestantism you're talking about. I've been driven through parts of the North that remind me of rural western Pennsylvania with their anti-abortion, "Repent or Burn in Hell!" type billboards. And of course, Scotland and Northern Ireland is where the ancestors of a lot of those backwards American Protestants came from.