They don't need no thought control!

I know one isn't supposed to talk about politics or religion in mixed company, which may explain the British ability to talk about the weather in great detail for extended periods of time. But, that doesn't stop me doing so. In the wake of Easter weekend let us consider the curious case of religion, mostly Christianity, in the UK.

America is regularly and accurately described as one of the most religious, or at least religiously observant, countries in the industrialised world. The results of a recent comprehensive survey of religiosity and belief in the United States grabbed headlines when it revealed that a full 15% of Americans now describe themselves as 'non-religious', or unaffiliated with any religion. Of course, only 1.6% call themselves atheist or agnostic (even if 12% are atheist or agnostic based on stated beliefs gathered in the survey). However, this was big news in the USA; a swelling 'non-religious' population challenged many assumptions about Americans' views of themselves and their society, even if the percentages are rather small compared to other countries. However, the media tended to ignore the stats on Christian affiliation, which suggest that more and more people are moving from the liberal/mainline Protestant churches into a 'broad evangelicalism'. This evangelicalism of course lacks the thorough-goingly academic, organised, accountable, and more 'democratic' structure that the Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists etc. all have. This to me seemed the more worrying finding, but then again I suppose I'm not a 'real American'.

I reflect on that after having just had a four day weekend for Good Friday/Easter here in the United Kingdom, which seemed a tad overblown observance in a country with so few observant Christians. Even if 70% of the population identifies as Christian, only 1 in 10 attend church services with any regularity, and less than half of Britons believe in God. Britain has become, despite its established Church, one of the most thoroughly secular non-believing societies in the industrialised world. Yet, faith schools still receive public money alongside any other state school, and we get a long weekend for Good Friday and 'Easter Monday'. This is to say nothing of my, and other non-British friends', bemusement at people's Easter partying attitude on Good Friday, a traditionally solemn day! It's as if all the trappings of a religious society are still there, with very little of the actual understanding or substance to back up that illusion.

Why is this? I think it has to do with the fact that while religion and politics have largely been divorced in UK political life, church and state never have been. The upkeep of an established church has led to a lot of public money and attention being given not only to Anglican institutions, but to all sorts of religious organisations in order to justify establishment while bowing to the fairness demands of a multicultural society. Unlike in the US, where church and state have at least a theoretical 'wall of separation' which allows both to thrive in their own spheres, British political secularism has been content to stop with PM's 'not doing God' while millions of pounds are funneled to religious organisations as if they are a branch of the state. This to me seems a peculiar, and peculiarly dysfunctional, approach to secularism and respect for religious belief. Like it or not, religion and spirituality still plays a big role in peoples' lives, even if it is in increasingly non-traditional and non-organised ways. Finding an appropriate approach, where peoples' personal beliefs (or lack thereof) are respected and examined for the contributions they can make to public life while keeping the state separate from religious organisations and visa versa, is still something that British society seems to be struggling with. Increasingly nasty public relations clashes between religious and anti-religious groups only highlight the polarisation and increasing mutual incomprehension that results from the British approach to religion and public life.

My home country and this one are very different on these fronts, and I do not claim the US has got it completely right either, far from it in fact. I merely find it amusing that, on 'Easter Monday', the BBC can write with lightly-veiled shock (and horror?) that up to an apparently whopping 55% of Britons believe in Heaven or an afterlife after having observed a long weekend celebrating the salvific death and miraculous resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Such a survey result in the US would garner shock at the number being so low! Meanwhile, all those puritanical Americans quietly celebrated (or not) the holiday as a religious one with friends and family on the Sunday, having no days off or official public recognition of the holiday, excepting perhaps the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

In a somewhat related observation: here in the UK, when one says Easter Egg one means chocolate egg, the British sadly lacking the great tradition of dying real eggs in a multitude of colours to celebrate the risen Lord and/or bank holiday.

Amen.