Emigration and Immigration: North America has benefited from immigration, with has led to a reinforcement, in some cases to a rediscovery, of religion. In addition, religious communities in the New World provided more help for migrants than any other agency.
Voluntary religion vs. state churches: Even after state and church have been officially separated in most European countries, up to this day most Europeans are born into a church and remain members of this church unless they decide to leave. By contrast, Americans decide to join a church and if they take that step they are convinced that this matters to their lives.
Political Religions: After the emotional experience of the First World War, many Germans decided to join radical political parties. Both the Communists and the National Socialists are called "Political Religions" because they promised the kinds of things only religions can give. After the total failure of these movements, we can register widespread skepticism vis-a-vis any kind of believing and belonging in Germany.
Social security vs. social insecurity: There seems to exist a relationship between social need and insecurity and the need for religion on the one hand and social security and the progress of secularization on the other.
Religion and Nationalism: Religion in America has been closely linked to the notion of American Exceptionalism. By contrast, with the total collapse in 1945, the nexus between belief in one’s nation and belief in God dissolved in Germany. Germans turned instead to the ideal of a united Europe.