First I want to share this quote from St. John Henry Newman's The Mystical Rose. He says:

Look at the Protestant countries which threw off all devotion to [Mary] centuries ago, under the notion that to put her from their thoughts would be exalting the praises of her Son. Has that consequence really followed from their profane conduct towards her? Just the reverse - the countries, Germany, Switzerland, England, which so acted, have in great measure ceased to worship him, and have given up their belief in his divinity, while the Catholic Church, wherever she is found, adores Christ, as true God and true man, as firmly as ever she did, and strange indeed would it be if it ever happened otherwise.

Now, let's be real - strange indeed it IS that countries like France and Italy now have also followed in the footsteps of the Protestant countries of Europe in failing to honor God and worship Christ faithfully. And I usually don't like to sound too anti-Protestant, because it's not really the case that all Protestants are heretics just for being Protestants. Having said that, I do think there is a sense in which Protestantism tends to lead to secularism. Now, I invite your comments, and even disagreements on this, but I think that this saint who famously said, To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant is on to something here. I do think that a post-enlightenment, humanist, Protestant approach to Christianity naturally leads to - first, a kind of "religious but not spiritual" Christianity that turns real devotion into a cultural tradition, which then in the next generation leads to kind of "spiritual but not religious" disillusionment that turns that tradition into a burden which those who see themselves as more enlightened cannot wait to throw off.

What do you think?