Posted on 09/28/2026 10:32:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Long before the modern culture wars, early American courts treated insults against Jesus Christ as criminal offenses.
In 1811, a New York man was sentenced to prison for blaspheming the name of Christ, and the state’s highest court upheld the conviction without hesitation.
The ruling came from Chief Justice James Kent, who wrote that the United States was a Christian nation that “profess the general doctrines of Christianity.”
Kent’s opinion reflected the legal consensus of his day, not an outlier view.
Similar blasphemy statutes remained active across multiple states for more than a century, shielding the Christian faith from public scorn.
Today, many Americans have little awareness that such laws once existed or that they were enforced by respected jurists.
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Similarly, public obscenity laws were universally observed and enforced. Now, obscenity is “free speech.” Too bad our stupid founders didn’t know this.
Yeah, God needs protection from the likes of us by the likes of us.
We had a better America at one time.
Some locations still do except they now call it “Hate Speech”.
Quite unrelated to this issue, however.
A lot of people don’t realize that the Bill of Rights only restrict the federal government until Reconstruction. Prior to the 14th Amendment and the resulting Supreme Court decisions, states were free to regulate religion, speech, etc..
Slavery was enforced for a while too.
The headline seems a little deceptive.
If New York did this, then “America” did not do this.
It’s a distinction and yes, it does in fact matter.
This was not a federal government action. ???
Everything is enforced. It’s not whether, but which.
We had a better America at one time.
_________________
I remember a time when all 50 states had anti-Sodomy laws.
We did indeed have a better America at one time.
Sounds good
Jews can watch Our Gang reruns as exceptions like they did with them at Jackson prep early 70s
In my day
“Prior to the 14th Amendment and the resulting Supreme Court decisions, states were free to regulate religion, speech, etc..”
The Incorporation Doctrine does not actually flow from the 14th Amendment. The Supremes simply made it up.
They invented it. Whole cloth. It’s not real. It has no actual connection.
To use the more pointed word: The Supreme Court lied.
We sure did and blacks aped 80% of white cultural stats
What is the point of this post? Something happened over 200 years ago so it is ok now?
How many Americans would be in jail now for blasphemy ?? we would need a lot more prisons
They used to hang witches in Massachusetts in colonial days.
That’s the truth.
RE: Something happened over 200 years ago so it is ok now?
The author does not say that.
I think he is saying that we cannot deny the fact that America was a CULTURALLY CHRISTIAN COUNTRY, even in the ( now deep blue ) state of New York.
The author is arguing that early American law—well into the 19th and even 20th century—explicitly treated the United States as a culturally Christian society, and courts enforced that assumption through blasphemy laws that criminalized insults against Jesus Christ.
The point is not theological ( that we should still retain such laws ), but historical: Christian norms once had legal force, and most modern Americans are unaware of how strong that legal consensus was.
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