Since religious persecution by the secular authorities has such a long and successful track record of eliminating religion from a culture, a British journalist advocates having a go at stamping it out in England:
[R]eligious people and their views should not be officially recognised in groups. Religion should not be allowed a public space or public representation. This is hard for those of us who used to love the muddled Anglican compromise; it means the disestablishment of our national church – if it doesn’t self-destruct first…. There must be no more religious schools – personally I would leave those that exist alone. There must be no public recognition of religious associations as representatives of anything or anybody: not on campuses, not in student unions, not in government consultations or in parliament.
So-called religious community leaders, or umbrella groups of religious bodies, must of course be free to associate as they like in private, in a free country, but publicly they must be ignored. Publicly they must not teach or promote illegal prejudices. Forced into the private sphere, denied the oxygen of publicity, power and influence, highly politicised religious groups will wither on the vine.
As I pointed out in TIA, this is the connecting point between atheism and totalitarianism that so many atheists are afraid to admit. But I’m not outraged, quite the opposite in fact, as it would be very, very good for Christianity to see it abolished by the secular authorities in the West. Only then would it revert to the flame-forged form that competes so favorably with Islam and every other religion; not even lifelong Anglicans can stomach the increasingly apostate state church any longer.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.