Reply #55: In England, the Leaders of the Anglican Church [View All]

[On the Road]

are in the House of Lords. In Germany, the state gives money to mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches. (Not exactly an official church, but it has official state sanction.) Then there's Italy and the Roman Catholic church. It doesn't end there, but I'm not an expert on it. There are lots of holdovers from earlier days of Christian monarchs.

My point is not so much the legal status of the church, but having a church that's incorporated into the government framework. It becomes part of the power structure, co-opted, and tends to lose its conviction and ability to attract followers. I absolutely believe that the separation of church and state has made churches more vigorous. And the current movement towards secularization has intensified that trend.