“In the case of Rex v. Woolston … the (New York Supreme) court said … whatever strikes at the root of Christianity, tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government. The same doctrine was laid down in the late case of The King v. Williams…the authorities show that blasphemy against God, and contumelious reproaches and profane ridicule of Christ or the Holy Scriptures…are offenses punishable at common law, whether uttered by words or writings. … because it tends to corrupt the morals of the people, and to destroy good order. … They are treated as affecting the essential interests of civil society. … We stand equally in need, now as formerly, of all the moral discipline, and of those principles of virtue, which help to bind society together.
“The people of this state, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice; and to scandalize the author of these doctrines is not only, in a religious point of view, extremely impious, but, even in respect to the obligations due to society, is a gross violation of decency and good order. …”
Chief Justice James Kent,
New York Supreme Court
Dr. Lloyd Stebbins 