It's the first amendment to the Constitution. RI only EXISTS because Roger Williams wanted some place more religiously tolerant than MA, so he founded one. Historically, we've gone after members of a given religion more for the harm their specific practices, or supposed practices, are believed to do to society. I'm no great fan of Mormonism, but even they weren't persecuted for being Mormon, but for what amounted to charges of sedition (the polygamy thing is, IMHO, purely about accepted social standards, since the dominant Christianity of the time does not condemn frequently seems to condone polygamy. )

And there was also a time when we didn't have to "lick boots" to be popular internationally. It ended around 1945, when we stopped being the idealist upstart nation that spoke truth to powerful empires and decided to simply BECOME a powerful empire. Flash back as recently as 1905 and we see Japan and Russia REQUEST the sitting US President run their peace conference because they actually TRUSTED America to be an impartial arbitrator. Both of them. But, as with individuals, once they reach the top people often behave very differently from the way they did on the way up there. Sure, there's plenty of jealousy and inferiority to go around, but the sad and simple fact is that the biggest reason we're seen as jerks by a lot more people than we were 60 years ago is because we ACT like jerks so much more often now.