text: You wrote: "early American life wasn't Catholic. It was Protestant/Puritan. For this group, the Bible was the centre of life."
  
  Early American life was not monolithic because, until 1789, there wasn't an America, there were thirteen distinct sovereign colonies with their own histories and ethos.
  
  Puritans ceased to be relevant at all circa 1700, and prior to that were only a force in Massachusetts and briefly in Maryland.
  
  The dominant Protestant church in the early part of the nation was the Church of England, which had absorbed the Church of Sweden where it existed, and the center of their life was the Book of Common Prayer and the Anglican ethos. Congregationalists were common in New England.
  
  Catholicism was common in previously French areas and along the northern border, while in what was to become America Catholicism dominated in California, Texas, and Florida.
  
  Other than that, I am full agreement with you.