Whatever Happened to Separation Of Church and State?

Item: A New York Times article describing a Republican strategy session  after the successful gubernatorial victories of two  conservatives,  Robert McDonnell in Virginia and Christopher Christie in New Jersey, notes  “there was barely a whisper about abortion, gay marriage or gun control” as the group discussed  how to design future winning campaigns. Though McDonnell and Christie had strong records of opposition to abortion in particular, both downplayed the issues in their campaigns.

Item: An article in Politico, describing the Catholic Church’s role in the passage of the controversial Stupak-Pitts amendment in the House health reform bill   (which massively restricts the possibility of abortion coverage by private insurance companies) states:  “Success in the House came after the Church ran a classic lobbying operation: deploying paid staff to Capitol Hill, tapping influential bishops to make private appeals to key congressional leaders and distributing bulletin inserts to 19,000 parishes with easy instructions—and sample wording—for sending a message to local representatives.”

Item: From a  recent Washington Post  story: “The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said… that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.”

Item:  143 Catholic and evangelical leaders recently signed a manifesto stating their intention to disobey laws with which they disagree on abortion and gay marriage. As the manifesto states,

“We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.

What to make of all this? The Republicans’ intention to run their campaigns on bread and butter issues, especially taxes, suggests that the long and successful run of electoral victories based on abortion and other “hot button” social issues may have run its course with a public deeply concerned about the economy.  At the same time, as the above examples show, conservative Catholic and Protestant clergy have apparently decided to significantly ramp up their own direct involvement in politics. 

In particular, the Catholic Church‘s aggressive role in promoting the Stupak amendment has drawn concern from both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The group Catholics for Free Choice has decried the seeming willingness of the Bishops to  let the entire health care bill –historically  a key priority of the church— go down in flames if the abortion fight does not go their way.

Others point to the Church’s disproportionate focus on abortion in the health care reform deliberations and its corresponding neglect of immigrants’ access to health care. The Politico article quotes one of the Catholic legislators lobbied by the Church as saying the efforts of the Church’s lobbyists regarding immigrants were “not even close” to those on abortion.

Most fundamentally, however, the Church’s recent political activism on both gay marriage and abortion raises disturbing issues about the current state of play regarding church/state separation in the United States. The U.S. is neither a “Christian nation” as fundamentalists like Pat Robertson have long-declared it to be, nor one where its citizenry should be ruled by Catholic teachings, as the Bishops appear intent on achieving.  But evangelical Protestants have long been tied to the Republican party.  With Democrats in power, the Catholic Church is inevitably more influential at this moment, given its historical support of many of the issues favored by Democrats (with abortion being a glaring exception). As if the coming deliberations in the weeks and months ahead over health care reform were not complicated enough, these negotiations also challenge the Democratic Party to reaffirm a strong commitment to church/state separation.

Its not like we haven’t experienced this type of church/state dilemma before. During the Depression years Eleanor Roosevelt, aware how  devastating unwanted pregnancies were to impoverished families, and impressed by the efforts of Margaret Sanger, lobbied  her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to support birth control. FDR refused, afraid of alienating urban Catholics, an important part of his New Deal coalition.

But that was then. Now, those who support reproductive justice are a crucial part of the Democratic base.  Moreover, Catholic voters make use of contraceptive and abortion services at about the same rate as other Americans.  Democratic leaders will be doing both the right thing, as well as the politically strategic one, if they keep religion out of public policy.