Grex Synthesis Conference

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Grex Synthesis Item 153: Blasphemy!
Entered by brighn on Mon Jun 5 16:02:36 UTC 2000:

My crusade: wilfully and thoroughly mock the Public Act of 1931, which should
be generally deconstructed and rebuilt, since it has both decent laws (the
rape code, for instance) as well as, well, this, among other things:

THE MICHIGAN PENAL CODE (EXCERPT)


Act 328 of 1931

750.102 Blasphemy; punishment. [M.S.A. 28.297 ]
Sec. 102. Any person who shall wilfully blaspheme the holy name of God, by
cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.



History: 1931, Act 328, Eff. Sept. 18, 1931 ;--CL 1948, 750.102 .

Former Law: See section 17 of Ch. 158 of R.S. 1846, being CL 1857, ' 5872;
CL 1871, ' 7707; How., ' 9293; CL 1897, ' 11706; CL 1915, ' 15480; and CL
1929, ' 16832.



750.103 Cursing and swearing. [M.S.A. 28.298 ]
Sec. 103. Cursing and Any person who has arrived at the age of discretion,
who shall profanely curse or damn or swear by the name of God, Jesus Christ
or the Holy Ghost, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. No such prosecution shall
be sustained unless it shall be commenced within 5 days after the commission
of such offense. 


History: 1931, Act 328, Eff. Sept. 18, 1931 ;--CL 1948, 750.103 .

Former Law: See section 18 of Ch. 158 of R.S. 1846, being CL 1857, ' 5873;
CL 1871, ' 7708; How., ' 9294; CL 1897, ' 11707; CL 1915, ' 15481; and CL
1929, ' 16833.

=====

So much for separation of church and state, and not establishing a state
religion.

9 responses total.

#1 of 9 by voodoo on Mon Jun 5 16:47:48 2000:

Oy my...don't get me started, I'm a life long member of the Church of 
the Subgenius and am quite fond of blasphemy...hehe:)

I've never seen this and it's very disturbing.  How does this fit with 
the first amendment?

Thanks for bringing this up Brighn.

#2 of 9 by brighn on Mon Jun 5 18:10:53 2000:

As far as it how it fits with the First Amendment, well, it's clearly in
violation. =} I don't know if it's ever been enforced, I would hope not,
although I understand that laws which clearly contradict the First Amendment
don't have to be enforced in order to be struck down (while laws that violate
other parts of the Constitution DO, in fact, have to be enforced first).

Although I'm not a lawyer, so I may be wrong. =}

#3 of 9 by jazz on Mon Jun 5 19:17:28 2000:

        As in the other case, wouldn't someone swearing upon a Bible as "so
help me God" be ... swearing to God (750.103)?

#4 of 9 by brighn on Mon Jun 5 22:36:50 2000:

I think the interpretation might come in under the word "profanely".

#5 of 9 by jazz on Tue Jun 6 14:09:02 2000:

        So if someone were asked to swear on a Bible, and insted of saying
"yes", said "Fuckin' A", that'd be more along the lines of what they're
talking about?

#6 of 9 by brighn on Tue Jun 6 14:34:17 2000:

heh

#7 of 9 by voodoo on Tue Jun 6 16:27:46 2000:

LOL!  Okay, I'm gonna have to stop reading this during work.  I'm 
attracting alot of attention with my belly laughs.

#8 of 9 by brighn on Thu Jun 8 15:14:38 2000:

You know, that first law says I could go to jail for saying, "You've been a
naughty God, haven't you? You didn't finish all your peas."
=}

#9 of 9 by voodoo on Thu Jun 8 18:31:34 2000:

What would happen if you said "God Damned..."

:)

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