One thing I've found pretty consistently is that when the word "secular" is used, they really mean "Christian," because Christianity already has cultural and identity connections to French national identity
I haven't read the book, but that's largely what it's like here (Sweden) too. It's very common to see an attitude of "if WE do it it's not religious." I've even seen comments (granted, from xenophobic assholes) along the line of "OMG THEIR KIDS ASK FOR PORK-FREE FOOD IN SCHOOLS, OUR FREEDOM IS THREATENED" which, dude. Why do you care what other people eat?
Anyway. Can't really contribute much to the discussion except to say that both the original post and this comment made me go "oh boy, do I ever recognize that" followed by "and it sucks."
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I haven't read the book, but that's largely what it's like here (Sweden) too. It's very common to see an attitude of "if WE do it it's not religious." I've even seen comments (granted, from xenophobic assholes) along the line of "OMG THEIR KIDS ASK FOR PORK-FREE FOOD IN SCHOOLS, OUR FREEDOM IS THREATENED" which, dude. Why do you care what other people eat?
Anyway. Can't really contribute much to the discussion except to say that both the original post and this comment made me go "oh boy, do I ever recognize that" followed by "and it sucks."