This rhetoric is actionable, though. The Bill of Rights isn't flavor text like the Declaration of Independence was. It's legally binding in the strongest sense.

It was perhaps just dumb luck that a sentiment of religious freedom was at its peak during the founding of the United States (see the Maine constitution for how sentiment shifted over the following 30 years), but that is what was enshrined in the most central legal document of the country.

People can fall short (VERY short) of principles they espouse. This might mean that we shouldn't worship every aspect of their existence. We might even find them personally vile. But it doesn't necessarily corrupt the principles themselves.