You brought up a lot of interesting points about using religion as a way that writers used to connect to audiences in the North and the South. To go off of what you mentioned in your post, I noticed that religion was also a common theme in Lincoln's second inaugural address. When says, "both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other," I think he levels the playing field between Northerners and Southerners. He shows that, although the two regions differ in their opinions of separation, there are a lot of beliefs they share. They hold the same religious beliefs and many of the same American values. The Civil War, in this way, was truly a war between brothers. They all lived in the same nation, but had beliefs about slavery and separation that drove them apart.
Religion is, and always has been, a strong symbol in America, and the fact that all three of these authors use different aspects of it shows that an argument based on religious interpretation is not a strong one in this context. Although I like how Lincoln brought up the common religious affiliations among Americans, I don't think that any author should base their whole pro- or anti-slavery argument on it. There is far too much room for interpretation on the subject, and people on both sides of the North-South border can use it to their advantage when talking about slavery.
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