Taq writes:
Is there any viable political movement to change this practice? Are any of the political parties campaigning on a platform that calls for the abolishment of government support for religious schools?
No, it's not a big enough issue, and not one that really runs on left/right/centre political lines. Groups like secular humanists campaign for it, and individuals, like R. Dawkins, needless to say.
As for the public, about 85% think that children from all the different religions should be educated together.
Taq writes:
If I remember right, there is also a fair percentage who list their religion as "Jedi". I might have to move there myself.
You're welcome! Actually, the census in which lots of people put Jedi as a joke (there was an internet campaign) was a couple of years before the survey I mentioned.
In that census, 70% described themselves as Christians. What people do is fill in whatever religion their family uses for weddings and funerals, regardless of what they actually believe.
So, work it out, and we have a lot of cultural Christians who don't really believe in God!
Not only that, half the country cannot even name
one of the four gospel writers!!!!!
And, on one survey with the question "why do Christians celebrate Easter", more than half either stated that they didn't know or got the answer wrong!
That's what I mean by a nation of apatheists. Most people just aren't really interested in religion, and probably don't have any fixed beliefs.
Go across the channel, and the French are even less religious than we are, unless you count food as a religion.
As for the Swedes, they're a nation of baby eaters.