Dean Esmay has an impressive array of European (and one former European colony’s) flags which feature a variant of the Christian cross prominently in their design. He then observes, wryly,
Interestingly, most of these countries have officially established state religions–state churches which receive taxpayer funding and official recognition at government functions. I find myself wondering: how can anyone bear to live in any of these oppressive theocracies? Surely they must all be on the slippery slope toward Taliban-style rule.
As commenter Michael Demmons points out, though, none of those polities currently have state religions in any particularly meaningful sense.
What’s more interesting to me than the “theocracy” red herring is the degree to which the European countries represented by these flags have become secularized. The United States is, by leaps and bounds, more religious than its Western European counterparts. And yet, somehow, we’re also the country where minor nods to our Christian cultural heritage sparks the most bitter fights.
Is there, for example, a huge movement in any of these countries to get the cross off their flag on par with, say, the controversy over Nativity scenes on the public square or the use of Indian mascots by our sports teams?
