American exceptionalism

Conservative pundits like Stephen Crowder, Ben Shapiro, and Denis Prager claim that what makes America, and "the West" more broadly, great are Judeo-Christian values.

However, individualism, civil liberties, democracy, science and reason... All the ideals that make America as great as it is today are thanks to the Enlightenment, which was largely a secular movement. Many of the founding fathers (Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Monroe) were deistic, meaning they were not "Christian". Jefferson literally wrote his own version of the Bible excluding all the supernatural bullshit and miracles.

And if anything Christian fundamentalism has held our country back, and continues to do so to this day. People that think the earth is flat, that evolution isn't real, that bomb abortion clinics, that create gay conversion camps: they cause a demonstrable harm to our society.

Another thing that throws a wrench into conservative notions of Christian ideals and American exceptionalism is that Eastern societies were far more advanced than the West prior to the Enlightenment. Our numerical system was developed by Hindus, and popularized by Arabs. Advancements like ink, paper, gunpowder, were all made in China. Baghdad, a Muslim city, was a hub for scientific and philosophical advancement. My point is that the Christianization of a civilization isn't correlated with the greatness of said society, and if anything it is negatively correlated. Another fact that exemplifies this is that South America is arguably more Christian/religious than the US and other European nations, but far less successful.

I guess I just don't understand where conservatives get this idea that Christianity and its values are what make America, and the West great.

I've read a few fics recently about MACUSA/Illvermorny being involved with Hogwarts and the British Ministry and sometimes I think they overdo it with singing the praises about how great things are in the states compared with how seemingly backwards everything is in Britain. It feels like whitewashing to an extent, not to mention that some fics take jibes at British people and culture that seem to be borderline xenophobia (but that's just my opinion).

Is this a new thing in fics? What are your thoughts?

To be clear, I don't blame American authors for writing fics this way, it's probably more to do with the education system and how Hollywood traditionally portrays Americans compared with foreign countries.

My understand of American exceptionalism was that America's history and political structure are unique though out history and that Americans should take pride in that fact.

However, I've also heard it used to describe America as not just exceptional and also better.

Sometimes, it's presented as America as responsible for fixing the problems of lesser countries but also as showing American as being exempt from treaties and international laws.

How does American exceptionalism play out in the attitudes of everyday Americans?