You mean the heresy of those good bible thumpin' Christians like Jefferson and Franklin? /s
Actually, the "old time religion" as we know it today is a product of the Second Great Awakening, which started at the Cane Ridge revival in Kentucky, and spread north, south and west. The issue in the north was overcompetition and sectarian strife (the "burned over districts") and, more importantly, the migration of the old Yankee protestant population west as the Catholics moved in (Prod Flight).
Religious devotion has waxed and waned throughout American history, but to say that the founders of our nation were holy rollers is a revisionist mistatement. They were men of varying opinions on religion, but as they were not part of the Second Great Awakening, it would be a mistake to draw a line from them to Billy Graham.
It is interesting to note, btw, that 1900 was the first year in which a majority of Americans were estimated to be affiliated with one church or another, largely due to Catholic immigration (Catholics being REQUIRED to register with a parish and attend mass). Before then, folks picked and choosed their churches (if they even attended) based upon the quality of clergy.
Jumping right on the Deist bandwagon, I see, with a fine helping of bible-thumpin’ stereotype to boot.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself were profoundly Protestant, the product of an overwhelmingly Protestant society. Your exceptions do not override that reality.
The canard of “picking and choosing” between churches is almost complete historic anachronism. Those who did so fell prey to State pressure to conform, or fell prey to the State for not conforming. It wasn’t like changing your socks, forsaking the beliefs that your own people held, and it was not a decision taken lightly, not during the Reformation and not in the colonies that thrived due to religious outcasts persecuted by State churches in the British Isles and on the continent.
Spend some time studying migratory patterns, or if you have ancestry who lived it as I do, study your own family. The people themselves moved in groups that associated due to religious belief more often than not, which frequently had roots in national origin prior to removal to the British North America colonies. This effect persisted all the way through the colonial era, into the Revolutionary era and beyond, with pushing the “frontier” over the Appalachians all the way to the other side of the continent.
As a result, if anyone believes that so-called “Protestant” religious belief and the strength thereof stems from a nineteenth century revival in Kentucky, all I have to say is that they’re completely outside their area of understanding.