The secular myths of the Christian west England has a state religion, monarchy, Christian cross in its flag & reserves 120 seats in parliament for Church Bishops & Royal families. Yet for west, England is democratic but India regressive just for its neutrality in UKR. A thread.
32 Nations in Europe officially recognize Christianity, to varying degrees, either as state religion or with special privileges in constitution or through a Concordat with the Vatican. Concordats are agreements of nations with Vatican to govern & protect Church interests.
USA's official motto is "In God we trust", its 50 state constitutions mention the word "God" & we know which God. It's presidents take oath on Bible & attend national prayer breakfasts in Church every year. Yet for the first world US is "liberal & secular." How democratic is UK?
England has an official state religion, the Church of England, which believes Jesus is the only god. Why is England still a Christian state in 21st century? asked no western liberal ever. But India despite birthing 4 world religions has to bear colonial vestige of secularism.
UK Parliament has 26 seats reserved for Bishops of Church of England. Till 2015, for 400 years there was not one female Bishop chosen. But UK's democratic reputation is untouched despite reserving a section of its Parliament exclusively for White Christian males for 4 centuries.
Consider if India reserved seats in parliament for its religious heads. A Modi elected by popular vote is a sign of democratic backsliding for west but 26 Bishops nominated directly by Church to make national laws is fair game. Burden of secularism is only for brown shoulders.
92 seats in UK parliament are filled on hereditary basis. Yes, based on birth. These hereditary seats called 'peers' are reserved for the royal families of UK. In Indian democracy, even a ward councilor position can't be filled based on birth. Yet UK is progressive, India is not.
England's national flag is based on the Saint George's Cross. George is venerated as a military saint who died for Christian faith, a mythical inspiration for crusade wars. Imagine if India added a Om to its flag, probably it would get a UN condemnation for religious intolerance.
Though titular, UK is still a constitutional monarchy where descendants of aristocratic families that pillaged the third world with colonialism are bowed to & revered. The queen is head of the state church as well, making Church the central axis of England's nationhood identity.
India recognizes no erstwhile royal families. But Europe has 12 monarchies, honoring memory of a glorious empire past when they enslaved & ruled 3/4th of the world. But according to BBC, UK monarchy is a full democracy but India is an electoral autocracy.
bbc.com/news/world-asi…
Take National anthems. England's makes 11 references to its Queen, invoking gods to help her for imperial conquests. US anthem authored by a slave owner has passages about slavery still not removed. India's Anthem is equitable, no reference to religion/god or against any people.
Beyond US/UK, Germany in 06 pushed for EU constitution with Christian flavor. Italy, Portugal & Spain have special relationships with their churches, France has areas where separation of Church & State doesn't apply. All Nordic nations run state churches.
euobserver.com/institutional/…
While Arab states exhibit their Islamism, Europe is subtle in camouflaging its Christian identity in cloak of secularism. Gives them better operability & moral standing in geopolitics. It has a deep Caucasian Christian conscious, we are seeing invoked in fraternity with Ukraine.
Duplicity of west in retaining its Christian/Colonial legacy while parallelly placing demands on third world to strip its religion, identity & culture. This willful hypocrisy by design is what makes global liberal order a farce, which no self respecting nation can participate in.
