Chamblee54

PG heard a discussion recently, with a comment about separation of church and state. The concept was that this separation was good for the church.
In the USA, religions have to compete in the “free marketplace of ideas”. Tell your story, sell your product, and if the people like it, they will buy it. American Jesus worshipers have adapted to this environment, like a fish adapts to a pond. They are very good at marketing. Jesus is very popular in America. If they government ordered Americans to go to church, they would rebel.
Many Islamic countries legally enforce their religion. If they were to relax this rule, and let Islam compete in the free marketplace of ideas, then Islam will need to attend to the needs of the people. Islam is another religion that historically has been good at marketing, and will probably do a good job of winning believers.
In Czarist Russia, the Orthodox church was in bed with the rulers. In 1917, there was a revolution. The church was thrown out along with the Czar. The communists took over, and were officially atheists. (It is a good question how well the state enforced atheism worked.)
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.