Separating church and state in Greece

From the Friendly Atheist:

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, an atheist who recently said he wants to formally introduce the struggling nation to secularism, will lay off 10,000 clergymen and replace them with public servants, including doctors and teachers.

Tsipras announced the plan to remove priests and other employees affiliated with the Orthodox Church as part of a larger effort to officially separate church and state. He said about a week ago that he thought the Church was going to willingly cede control of government positions. I thought he was being naïve.

Well, it turns out that Greece isn’t all that much like the United States, and his efforts seem to be paying off already. In fact, the Church agreed to the deal that included laying off thousands of government-employed clergymen...