i mean, i know the argument is usually made the other way around - we talk about politics being a kind of religion, rather than religion being a kind of politics.

but, i'm an anarchist. i've read marx. i've read bakunin. i've read kropotkin. and, there is really a consistent thread through the left for really centuries that religion is a hierarchical tool of control, deployed by the aristocracy and/or bourgeoisie, to dominate the working class with. i'm not sure if any of these people really addressed the question directly, but i would be surprised to hear a marx or a bakunin disagree with me, if i presented the church as a basically political institution. stated or not, the concept saturates the historical left.