Scotland is no longer a Christian country says the Pope. Result.

No, I’m not makinmg a knee-jerk “I hate Christians” joke. But I find the idea that a church is bemoaning it’s lack of influence in the affairs or a whole country telling. There should no more be Christian countries than Islamic countries, or Pagan nations, or atheist states. Not only should the state have nothing to say about religion (other than “do what you like as long as you don’t break any laws, and no, no special dispensation on the basis of religious faith for anything“, but there should be such a diversity of religion in every state that it would be impossible to point to on faith and say that a country is an X, Y or Z country.

And I think the fact that a church is bemoaning it’s lack of influence is damning. Yes, there’s an argument to be made that it’s out of a sincere belief that if people don’t do things their way, they’ll got to hell, but I’ve set held any store in that. Frankly, the point at which a religion says that is the point at which I get really suspicious about what it’s leaders are really after.