Reflections of a stormy petrel

Nonetheless, the US and Italy are more like each other in this matter than either of them is like, say, Britain. Britons, who have been socialized from the schoolyard if not the cradle to hate and fear "organized religion" - and not to think of it in any serious way, either - are apt to sneer at the spectacle of left-wing politicians such as Obama and Hillary seriously discussing their own religious experience and views with religious leaders. In Britain, an apparently genuine Christian like Blair had to conceal his faith and vote as if it did not exist, in order to make a career; and his chief ally, Brown, the current prime minister, is a sworn enemy of Christianity who has taken to the cause of atheism the grim moral purpose and Manichean Calvinist attitudes of his Presbyterian ancestors. In France, there has been positive scandal in some quarters when Sarkozy, as a presidential candidate, dared to speak positively of the Church... It is not that Europeans have no religion, it is that the have been positively robbed of it by their political elites.