FFRF Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens has had a piece published in the Detroit News decrying the state’s still-standing blasphemy law.

“Michigan is one of only six states that still have archaic anti-blasphemy laws, alongside Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming,” Dollens writes. “These kinds of antediluvian statutes often harken back to America’s colonial era, before the U.S. Constitution, when church and state were entangled and civil rights were routinely curtailed.”

Dollens highlights the dangers that Michigan residents may face if this law is not struck down: 

You might assume statutes like this are forgotten “blue laws” never enforced in modern times. But in Pennsylvania, enforcement happened as recently as 2010. George Kalman attempted to register a film production company named I Choose Hell Productions. State officials rejected his application because Pennsylvania statute says corporation names are not allowed to be “blasphemous.” A federal district court ruled that the enforcement of the state’s blasphemy statute violated the First Amendment. And yet, the unconstitutional law remains on the books, just like Michigan’s law remains today.

Why? Not because anyone is defending it. Not because it’s needed. But because no one has taken the time to repeal it. Leaving laws like this in place sends the wrong message. It tells citizens that legislators think their rights are conditional, that religious speech is protected, but religious dissent can still be punished. And it leaves open the possibility that someone could misuse the law again, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court has shown a willingness to rewrite constitutional law in favor of religious litigants.

Even conservative evangelical politicians agree that blasphemy laws are wrong. In 2020, U.S. Sen. James Lankford introduced a bipartisan Senate resolution calling for the global repeal of blasphemy laws. The resolution condemned foreign governments that jail or persecute individuals for religious speech and nonbelief. It passed unanimously in the Senate and was also approved in the House by a vote of 386–3. Such rare and overwhelming support demonstrates that protecting religious expression, including the freedom to question or reject religion, is a shared American value that transcends party lines.

Faith-based religious liberty advocates agree. Groups such as the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty support repealing blasphemy laws. They understand what the Founders believed: True religious freedom requires the freedom to criticize, question, reject religion and speak freely without fear of censorship or punishment. 

“Repeal the state’s blasphemy law and bring Michigan in line with constitutional principles,” the piece concludes, urging reason to prevail over a dogma-fueled law.

You can read the full op-ed here. 

This column is part of FFRF’s initiative to engage with pertinent national and state issues and spread the messages of freethought and nontheism to a broader audience.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members nationwide, including more than 1,100 members in Michigan. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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