spineless pinko's update

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>  A "well-established religious tolerance"?  That contradicts your
>>  earlier argument:
>
>No. One was a comparison of the 18th century to the 20th.  The other was a
>comparison of two different societies in the 18th.  Religious tolerance in
>the 18th century America meant one was free to choose what dissenting sect
>one wanted to belong to, or to make up one's own.  That's a lot freer than
>being compelled to belong to a single state church, as in most other
>countries of the time, including France. But it seems soaked in religion
>when compared to the same nation two centuries later, when there are no
>consequences to being entirely indifferent to religion's existence.
>
>Michael

Provided you aren't an abortionist, born in religious households, 
surrounded by pious co-workers, stuck in an abstinence-only "sex 
education" class, etc., there are little apparent consequences to 
being entirely indifferent to religion's existence, you mean.  The 
state in the modern world is not the main enforcer of religious 
conservatism, it seems to me; in Sweden, legal ties between the state 
and the Church of Sweden, the Lutheran majority church, were not cut 
until January 1, 2000.  And yet who can deny that Sweden has been 
more secular than the USA for a long time, even though "the dominant 
Lutheran churches in Sweden, Norway and Denmark have long been 
connected to -- and hold special status with -- the state.  Lutheran 
priests have their salary and pension guaranteed by the state, the 
head of state is a member of the Lutheran church..." (at 
<http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/151/15.0.html>)?

We've ranged all over the place in this thread, but may I return to 
my initial remarks here:  "According to Finke & Stark, the free 
market in religion promotes the growth of upstart sectarians.  The 
story can't be as simple & linear as Finke & Stark make it out to be, 
but might the USA be more secular today if the Framers had 
established the State Church?"

Yoshie