To me the point is that very few countries - if any - have true separation of religion and state, because religion is usually culturally embedded in a huge vari

To me the point is that very few countries - if any - have true separation of religion and state, because religion is usually culturally embedded in a huge variety of ways. But it's easier to see the ways that the state upholds certain religious practices from the outside, because when you're inside the system, you don't notice that embedding fully. The US is another good example of this: there is a constitutionally enshrined separation of church and state, but religion figures heavily in everything from money to the processes of Congress. From the outside, the US is a fundamentally Christian nation, but it seems like there are lot of people on the inside who see that differently.