How is Religion Being Used in Elections? How Does it Influence/Impact Elections?

Religion seems to be a bigger force in the 2024 election than ever before. Despite the First Amendment stating: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, Project 2025 proponents and their desire for a Christian Nationalist regime are driving much of the GOP agenda and candidates.
Are these ideas inherently undemocratic or against our Constitution?

A former Christian Nationalist explains: "Christian nationalism is an ideology that is based around the idea that this is a Christian nation, that this was founded as a Christian nation, and, therefore, it should be a Christian nation today and should be so in the future."
"The New Apostolic Reformation leaders were some of the earliest to support Donald Trump in 2016. They were at the very avant-garde of trying to get the 2020 election overturned and mobilizing folks to be at January 6. There were hundreds of New Apostolic Reformation Christians at January 6, as an example."
A group of New Apostolic Reformation leaders, apostles and prophets and others, were present at the White House a week before January 6. Speaker Mike Johnson has direct ties to the New Apostolic Reformation by friendship with Timothy Carscadden, who is a New Apostolic Reformation pastor from his home district in Shreveport, Louisiana.
**https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-is-christian-nationalism-and-why-it-raises-concerns-about-threats-to-democracy**

The Project 2025 is a manifestation of the ambitions of Christian Nationalists. The Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise is a 900-plus page document, that's central agenda is to impose a form of Christian nationalism on the United States. Christian nationalism believes that the Christian Bible, as God’s infallible law, should be the basis of government and have primacy over public and private institutions. Its patriarchal view does not recognize gender equality or gay rights and sanctions discrimination based on religious beliefs. Christian nationalist ideas are woven through the plans of Project 2025 and the pages of Mandate for Leadership. Page 4 sets the tenor:
The next conservative president must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights, out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.
In addition to erasing the rights of women and minorities, the Mandate:

• Recognizes women primarily in their roles as wives or mothers;
• Recommends the elimination of the Head Start childcare program (482). Project 2025 suggests that the new administration should “prioritize funding for home-based childcare, not universal day care”
• Portrays single motherhood as destroying families (4); and identifies fatherlessness as the root of all evil. **https://kettering.org/project-2025-the-blueprint-for-christian-nationalist-regime-change/**

In addition to pushing a Christian agenda, many politicians are speaking out against other religions. This week, Republican Senator John Kennedy opened up a new front in the GOP’s war on Muslims. Ironically, Kennedy’s assault occurred during a Senate hearing to combat this very type of bigotry. Kennedy began his questioning of Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, by accusing her of supporting Hamas.
Berry answered, “Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support.” She then added, “But you asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country.”
Questions:
Why is religion becoming so dominate in politics as it becomes less dominate in the culture? About three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) are religious “nones” – people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” - up 10 points from a decade ago. Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011.

Many liberals/Democrats are also Christians, but don't agree with Project 2025 or conservative candidates. How can people of the same religion have such different political views?
Politicians, or those who seek power, have always used religion to appeal to and control the masses. Shouldn't we be more cognizant of this by now and reject the practice?