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[–] alalzia 0 points 11 points (+11|-0) ago 

Initially the colonies were populated by the most conservative Europeans and their traditions are still part of the generally prudish American culture .

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[–] 5321518? 0 points 10 points (+10|-0) ago 

There is something missing from this answer though. It isn't just that we were populated by the more conservative people. It was that we were populated by so many different sects of Christians and they had a tendency to segregate into different areas of the colonies where they could worship as they saw fit. When it came time to write a Constitution to bind all of these areas together, they inserted the Establishment Clause into the Constitution to forbid the Federal government from putting one religion above the others but did not require the states to do the same (many states had official religions well into the 1800's) in order to appease all of these different people. It wasn't until the 14th Amendment came along and a few Supreme Court cases were ruled upon that the states could no longer put one religion above others. At that point it still was not uncommon for the life of a town to revolve around the local church. And the US even to this day is largely rural, where those same churches still dominate the social life of the people.

What does all that have to do with butts? It means that we did not start the process of actually separating the morals of particular religions from the morals of the government until really late compared to other countries. It is happening in the cities more quickly than outside of them, but even there we have a lot of leaders who were raised in the old ways and fight against it. Look at things like the Civil Rights leaders. They are mostly clergy still. Until that changes (and it is starting to) you won't see as much change everywhere.

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[–] IggyReilly 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

TIL. This could explain why some of my ancestors were buried without much of a marker - they immigrated here mid-1800s but did not practice the popular religion in the area they settled. I always thought that was kind of weird the township wouldn't respect their passing by allowing them headstones.