I often kick my self and ask "why didn't I write what Matthew Yglesias just wrote ?"

Often I have thought of it and noticed that no jounalist seems to be saying it, so why ?

Now it is "American weirdness about religion [snip] some kind of inability to comprehend religion as falling within the large domain of serious subjects that serious people have serious disagreements about." In the specific case Yglesias notes that (almost) no one in America will say anything bad about John Paul II but some people are upset that flags are flying at half mast. I note Kevin Drum is, politely and moderately as always, one of those people.

Yglesias sure has a point there. I'm not so sure about the example. I am not surprised that almost no one is criticizing John Paul II. I mean he is not buried yet. Also his death is like a death in the family to some catholics, which means that respect for their feelings requires a pause in criticism. Finally John Paul II's views don't fit American ideological categories. This is odd, since he was a consistently traditional catholic. I don't think many Americans disagreed with him about every one of his controversial views. Also few agreed with him on all of them.

The half mast issue is a bit half baked. I think many people are very rigid about the separation of church and state, because they fear the Christian extremists who want to over-rule the constitution, science and well everything. I think this is bad strategy, since such rigidity irritates people who don't have a firm view on the separation of church and state and makes them more likely to accept extreme actions by the theocrats. I notice that Matthew Yglesias tends to argue that something is bad policy, when he thinks it is bad politics (consider gun control). To be rude, I suspect that he might say "this is a losing issue lets give the red ne... staters their way on it" in private. However his blog is public given the traffic he gets.

His line on this "If Bush thinks he's an admirable man and wants to honor his life with half-mast flags, I have no real objection to that. [snip] he's the President and he has every right to honor the people he deems worthy of honoring." doesn't seem serious. George Bush can honor whoever he deems worthy, but the President can't do something unconstitutional with our flags. On the issue, I agree with Matt that it doesn't raise a separation of church and state issue at all and that Bush acted well within his authority. Still, the quick brush off which delights me when I am glad to agree, doesn't thrill me in this case where I agree without enthusiasm.

There is an interesting issue that many Americans seem to think religious toleration forbids debate about religious issues. It is very odd. I think this is the reason that many religious Americans feel that they are oppressed by secular humanism. It is true that expressions of religious belief are often followed by embarrassed pauses in conversation (usually in the circles I frequented but such expressions were very rare). However the thing which is really off bounds is any criticism of religion. Look at the comments to Brad DeLong's's thoughts on St Paul. I often have the impression that it is considered rude to for me to simply say that I am an atheist. Oddly the only time I can remember debating religion in the past two decades or so was with a Dutch Catholic woman in Italy.

I think this is a real problem. People are just refusing to communicate.

While both Christian extremism and the principle of separation church and state are unusually strong in the USA, the weirdness isn't completely US specific. Italians are strangely reticenta about religion too. I have known co workers for years before discovering that they were religious. Now on my part, the silence has a rationale. I think all religious beliefs are false, but I don't think it is always best to believe the truth. I don't follow Christ and I sure don't think that the truth will set us free. If there were a heaven would that it forfend that I convince one person that his departed loved ones do not have immortal souls.