"Andrew Bennett, a canary in the coal mine"

That's what Michael den Tandt calls the new Ambassador of Religious Freedom.

(He might call me  a member of "the urban chattering classes" because I have a degree and live within an easy walk of a Starbuck's, but I'm going to overlook that because I agree with him.)

. . . there is a blithe assumption in mass media culture, evidenced again recently by the widespread social media mirth surrounding the recent resignation/retirement of Pope Benedict XVI, that religion is passé. And indeed for many, as declining traditional church attendance shows, it is.

But only for many,  not for all, in Canada. And certainly not for many in places like the Middle East.

The idea that religion is passé is not new, either. Pope Benedict himself ran into it during WW II -- "Pick something else, we won't need priests in the New Germany" his army commander advised him.

Hey, it's been around at least since Karl Marx. 

Whether the Office of Religious Freedom makes any kind of difference remains to be seen -- Den Tandt has his doubts, as poor  Mr. Bennett has "only" five million a year to work with. Maybe it can do a little instructing of the ignorant -- that secularism is not the state religion of Canada.