FFRF Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” is Massachusetts state Sen. Rebecca Rausch for leading the legislative effort to repeal the state’s archaic law criminalizing blasphemy.
Massachusetts is one of only six states in the United States that still have anti-blasphemy laws, alongside Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming. Rausch, representing the Norfolk, Worcester and Middlesex district in the Massachusetts Senate, recently introduced SB 1251, which aims to repeal the state’s anti-blasphemy statute that dates back to before the U.S. Constitution. Today, you can still be fined $300 or jailed for up to a year for “willfully blaspheming the holy name of God” in Massachusetts. In June, Rausch’s bill successfully advanced out of committee and now awaits a vote in the Senate Rules Committee. After SB 1251 clears Senate Rules, it will face a full Senate vote. The Massachusetts Legislature must approve the legislation to repeal the archaic statute and bring state law in line with constitutional protections.
FFRF Action Fund is working with legislators in states that still have anti-blasphemy laws to educate citizens on blasphemy statutes and introduce legislation rectifying such antediluvian measures. FFRF Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens recently published an op-ed in the Telegram & Gazette, a daily newspaper based in Worcester, Mass., covering the anti-blasphemy law and Rausch’s legislation. Read the full opinion piece here.
Freethinkers, Democrats, faith-based advocates and Republicans all agree that laws criminalizing blasphemy should be repealed. In 2020, Republican U.S. Sen. James Lankford introduced a bipartisan resolution calling for the global repeal of blasphemy laws and condemning governments that persecute individuals for religious speech and nonbelief, which unanimously passed in the Senate and was overwhelmingly supported in the House. Religious liberty doubtlessly requires the freedom to speak freely on all aspects of religion without the threat of persecution.
The FFRF Action Fund sincerely thanks Rausch for leading efforts in the Massachusetts Legislature to eliminate the state’s anti-blasphemy law. Ridding Massachusetts of its statute criminalizing blasphemy, alongside the rest of U.S. states, is long overdue — and we honor the secular stars in statehouses nationwide who are addressing this glaring issue.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.