Why did William Blake criticize religion when it was connected to government power?

William Blake deeply valued private spiritual communion and held a profound disdain for institutionalized religion, particularly when it became intertwined with government power. He viewed such alliances as a corruption of true faith, famously labeling state-sanctioned religious codes as "The Abomination that maketh desolate" in his annotations to Bishop Watson’s Apology for the Bible.1

Blake believed that when religion was used to uphold political authority, it functioned as a tool of control rather than spiritual liberation. He associated this "State Religion" with the suppression of human joy and freedom, often depicting it as a tyrannical force that imposed "mind-forg'd manacles" upon society. For Blake, the institutionalization of belief—which he often referred to as "Priestcraft"—served to enforce rigid, rationalistic structures that stifled the human imagination and the spirit. Consequently, he rejected organized worship, preferring a personal, visionary connection to the divine that remained independent of the state's influence.12