Here's why separation of Church and State is a Good Thing:

[Theophylact]

It keeps the State from interfering with the Church. From Religion Clause :

Church Autonomy Leads To Dismissal of Damage Claim For Disfellowshipping

In Anderson v. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, (TN App., Jan. 19, 2007), a Tennessee state appellate court dismissed a suit brought by two former members of the Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses seeking $20 million in damages because of their expulsion from the organization and related injuries. They asserted various claims growing out of their disfellowshipping and shunning after they went public with charges about the church's handling of child sexual abuse allegations. The court held that plaintiffs' claims should have been dismissed because they are barred by the First Amendment's protection of purely religious matters from interference by secular courts. The court rejected plaintiffs' claims that the religious reasons given by the church were merely pretexts-- saying that courts are precluded from making that sort of inquiry. The court also rejected plaintiffs' defamation claims. The Associated Press reported on the decision yesterday.

(emphasis added)

[Beemer]

The following account is derived from the allegations in the complaint, which we must assume are true.

Barbara Anderson worked as a volunteer researcher at the international headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York from 1982 to 1992. Ms. Anderson alleged that during the last years of her work at international headquarters she became concerned about the organization’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations. She was of the opinion that Church policies and procedures “operated to the detriment of the victim and also to the detriment of the general congregation where the alleged molester or abuser was an active member. . . .”

After she left her headquarters position, Ms. Anderson continued doing research for the organization from her home. She was also quietly assisting Jehovah’s Witness abuse victims and interested parties with information and advice. In the year 2000, she began working with an elder from a congregation in Kentucky in a joint effort to change the policies of the church.

When these efforts proved to be fruitless, the elder resigned his position and decided to go public with his concerns. Producers of Dateline, an NBC news television program, invited the elder and Ms. Anderson to be interviewed on the program. According to the complaint, officials of the governing body of the church learned about the planned broadcast and told Joseph Anderson he could be removed as an elder if he did not prevent his wife from appearing on the show. When that warning did not achieve the desired result, they allegedly induced the elders of the Manchester congregation to charge Barbara Anderson with apostasy and to begin disciplinary proceedings against her. According to the Andersons’ complaint, apostasy is defined in English common law as turning away from one’s faith, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses define apostasy as including stirring up unrest or causing divisions within their church.

On May 10, 2002, Ms. Anderson appeared before a judicial committee of the Manchester congregation for trial on the charges of submitting an article to an apostate journal and causing division in the church. New charges were leveled against Ms. Anderson the following week: disrupting the unity of the congregation and “undermining confidence in Jehovah’s arrangements.”

So all things being equal, wouldn’t covering up child sexual abuse claims be apostasy as well? Now that the cat is out of the bag on the cover-ups, don’t these cover-ups stir up unrest or cause divisions within their church naturally?

Of course the Church is in the wrong here but they have their rules of make the accuser look bad.

Isn’t Religious Autonomy great! The Andersons try to do the right thing and they get shit on by the people in the Tower.

Hopefully Mrs. Anderson has seen the light and with all the research data she has accumulated over the years she can bring to light all the abuse cases and bring the abusers to trial.

On a side note, the sextuplets born in Vancouver, one has died. It’s difficult as it is supporting the life of a premature baby but now add Jehovah parents. Why did one of them die I wonder? The Canadian press isn’t forthcoming on the subject as of yet and the details are being withheld by the hospital and the parents.

[Theophylact]

Mind you, nothing stops her from pursuing criminal actions against the Witnesses if she can prove her charges, or from getting the parents to sue for harm to their children. That's exactly what happened to the Catholic Church, after all. Excommunicate or disfellowship all you like, it still doesn't allow you to abuse children.