Cornell University historian George Lincoln Burr once observed that “the Salem witchcraft was the rock on which the theocracy shattered.”

It’s a good thing for all Americans that it did. Our ancestors came to this shore to escape theocracy. Sharia law is theocracy. We need religion, but religion unchecked makes a lousy government.

Neither should we let government dictate to our religious institutions — except to say that no individual or institution is above the laws under which we as a people agree to abide.

However, it does get a bit nebulous when a Christian culture prays for the grace to forgive trespasses when the state has an obligation to prosecute them.

When prosecuting sins against society, due process in a court of law is a vast improvement over witch hunts, especially if the sins are alleged to have been committed by trusted authority figures, like the ones made last week in Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s grand jury report on sex abuse by individuals within the Catholic clergy.

American does not need another Salem witch hunt, and by every measure, Shapiro has been meticulous not to go down that road. The grand jury’s roughly 900-page report has been called the most exhaustive investigation of the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church by any state.

That said, America needs for the Catholic church — indeed, for every denomination of Christianity — to get its houses in order.

There are legal repercussions for criminal acts, and these should be vigorously confronted and prosecuted by the state.

At the same time, there are spiritual consequences for the atrocious collective sin of child sexual abuse. These cannot be ignored. Community and church must confront these and consider how to make reparation.

The church would do well to hold itself accountable to its own standards; specifically, the ancient text known as the Old Testament book of Leviticus, in which God prohibits a variety of sexual perversions. Disobedience would harm not only the people, but their land as well. “ ... even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.”

In the Old Testament of the Bible, there’s a story about Asa, one of the kings of Judah. King Asa was a good guy. He did exactly what Pennsylvania’s attorney general did last week — only Asa did it 3,000 years ago in Jerusalem. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes — the “gedeshim” they were called in Hebrew — and got rid of all the idols. The story is in the First Book of Kings, chapter 15.

Asa’s purging of the gedeshim led to his 41-year reign of peace and prosperity for his people. The purge was not a pleasant process, but it was necessary to restore a spiritual balance and vitality to his land and people.

Are we not confronted with the identical scenario now? Let’s not lose faith.

— TAH