Separating State from Church is the Foundation of a Free Society

Kristen Houghton

Maureen Dowd, a journalist whom I respect, has written a thought-provoking article titled Way Too Much Church in State, an opinion piece that was printed in The New York Times on May 14th of this year. Now as I stated I do respect Ms. Dowd’s work even though I may not always agree with her opinions.

However, her article on the Catholic Church’s influence on Catholic members of the Supreme Court and other areas of politics concerning human rights was spot on. Her take on the damage the church’s influence would have on women’s rights in a free country with multiple religions and spiritual beliefs was true and frightening. That one religion should have such control over a country’s laws as it relates to personal freedom is wrong. Separation of church and state is one of the key components in a country where rights for all citizens are expected.

Like Maureen Dowd I was raised a Catholic. Unlike Maureen Dowd, however, I left the Catholic Church in my teens because of the cruelty and sexism I saw present. And believe me I saw plenty. I was witness to the cruelty and whims of nuns and priests in my town and that was only a small area.

Worldwide, these members of the clergy used their authority to damage untold thousands upon thousands of children and adult women physically, emotionally, and mentally. This was all done in the name of a man named Jesus who, I am certain, never intended his words to be so corrupted by the clergy nor see physical abuse so pervasive and uncontrolled meted out by those in charge ‘of the faith’. We need only remember horrors such as the Inquisition with its torture of innocent people and the infamous Castrati choir where young males were castrated in order to keep their singing voices pure and high for the church fathers’ listening pleasure.

Ms. Dowd wrote “…it’s hard for me to watch the church trying to control women’s sexuality after a shocking number of its own priests sexually assaulted children and teenagers for decades, and got recycled into other parishes, as the church covered up the whole scandal. It is also hard to see the church couch its anti-abortion position in the context of caring for women when it continues to keep women in subservient roles in the church.”

I cannot agree more.

When my book, For I Have Sinned (Sins of the Fathers) — a fictional work based on a true story, which deals with priests’ sexual abuse of children and how the church hid their terrible deeds by shipping them off from one parish to another — was first published in 2012, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League got in touch with my agent, my publisher, and with me personally. He wanted publication stopped immediately. His warnings were strong, demanding, and peppered with threats of excommunication. My publisher is Jewish as is my agent, and I was no longer a Catholic so the threats meant nothing to any of us. The book was based on the true facts of the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church that had already been printed in newspapers and magazines.

My book was published and went on to become a book club favorite and top-seller despite Mr. Donohue’s diatribe against it being published.

The Catholic Church has an estimated wealth of more than $30 billion as of 2022. Estimation of its net worth comes from its ownership of tax-free properties including hospitals, nursing homes, offices, tennis courts, and telephone towers. Money for their political lobbying comes from this vast amount wealth. Quite interesting I would say.

No religion has the right to impose their will on any citizen’s right to make choices concerning their sexuality and their own bodies. The days when priests would tell married women, who confessed to them the ‘sin’ of using contraception, that they were barred from sacraments until they went home and got themselves pregnant, are long gone. The church cannot continue to treat women like recalcitrant children. That attitude diminishes all of society, men as well as women. The objective of separation of church and state was to create an environment in which people were free from one main dominant religion and its tenets.

The fear that Catholic members of the Supreme Court will vote their religion over Roe v Wade is a very real one. If they do so, they will be irreparably damaging the rights of women and relegating us to the status of second-class citizenship, a status that is still silently rampant in the church today.

Religion cannot and should not make the laws in this country.

© copyright 2022 Kristen Houghton all rights reserved