> The 1% are mostly religious

I think this assertion needs evidence as it seems more probable to me that the rich are anti-religious. In any country where Christianity is the main religion it is a very unattractive belief for the rich (the "eye of the needle", "root of all evil" and "give all you have to the poor" ethos). Most other religions are suspicious of wealth too (to a Buddhist it is an attachment) In the UK we had a recent prime minister (Tony Blair) who concealed his religious beliefs. In the US JD Vance has been illustrating how difficult it is for a person in power to reconcile that with mainstream religious belief.

Of course you preface all this with the assumption that you are right about reality yourself which is a whole other argument.

> Christianity is the main religion it is a very unattractive belief for the rich (the "eye of the needle", "root of all evil" and "give all you have to the poor" ethos)

Prosperity gospel is a thing. It preaches the literal opposite - god rewards good behavior by prosperity. Consequently, if you are rich, you are doing the right thing.

> In the US JD Vance has been illustrating how difficult it is for a person in power to reconcile that with mainstream religious belief.

No, US JD Vance is an illustration that if you convert to most conservative openly fascist branch of Catholicism, then try to abuse Catholicism for your political project, you will get into conflict with Pope who is conservative but definitely absolutely not fascists nor racist. And pope has to respond, because conservative Catholicism was already used this way in the past with ugly results.

JD Vance does not have "mainstream religious belief". And it is quite possible to reconcile "mainstream religious belief" with power - just not the vision of power Trump and Thiel and conservatives use.