Haldane on the Scottish referendum and religious freedom

Although it's tempting, for me, given my love of Braveheart and my sense that things went wrong at the Battle of Culloden, to root for secession/independence in the upcoming referendum, I strongly suspect (and even Paul Krugman's agreeing with me is not enough to make me change my mind) that it would be bad, even foolish, for Scotland to try to "go it alone."

I have been thinking about the issue primarily in terms of economies, currencies, and so on.  But, over at First Things, John Haldane has an interesting piece, called "Scotland on the Eve of the Referendum," which touches on another dimension of the whole debate.  He notes (among other things) that "progressive secular liberals envisage an independent Scotland as the first formal embodiment of a post-religious Europe."  And he discusses in some detail a "growing campaign to complete the work of secularization":

Of late it has become a significant strand in the campaign for independence. Something of the spirit of this is captured in the slogan of the Scottish Secular Society: “No deals, no priviliges, no exemptions.”

This campaign is principally aimed against the Catholic Church. The most recent target has been its opposition to same-sex marriage, but of longer standing is its animus against the existence of publicly supported Catholic Schools. Insofar as other Christian churches are less clear in their positions on abortion, euthanasia and marriage, or are liberal regarding them, and since they are not involved in denominational education, it is unsurprising that the secular attack is focused on Catholicism, or that it has intensified following the sexual scandal surrounding Cardinal O’Brien, the former Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

But there is another reason for the focus and ferocity of the attack. This is the long tradition of Scottish anti-Catholicism originating in Protestant polemics, and continuing in responses to Catholic immigration which has been renewed in recent times by Poles, including priests sent from Poland to provide for them. As a result, the Church is now assailed on one side by liberal secular humanists in the press, in the professions, and among the political class, and on the other by a population that has grown up with a folk legend of Catholics as a priest-ridden, immigrant underclass. Perhaps only time and forgetfulness will dispel this historical myth but it contributes to a climate favorable to the second line of attack, that against Catholic schools. . . .

Read the whole thing.  I think (with apologies to William Wallace and all that) I'll say a prayer for the United Kingdom.