Pat Boone spent the better part of last week in a conniption fit over a “Saturday Night Live” skit that mocked the “God’s Not Dead” series and other Christian films of its ilk. Well, on Thursday, we found out just how peeved the 1950s crooner-turned-religious right darling is at the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. He’d like nothing better than to see the return of blasphemy laws–a move that would effectively shred the First Amendment.
Boone dropped by Alan Colmes’ show on Fox News Radio on Thursday, and the conversation quickly turned to his war of words with “SNL.” People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
Boone claimed that there is “a vitriol” and “almost a hatred” against social conservatives. When Colmes asked Boone if he wanted to write some of those restrictions into law, Boone noted that there had been some restrictions in the past. He believed that “the majority of the American people” wanted to bring such restrictions back.
Colmes pounced, asking if the FCC should have the power to tell “SNL” and other shows that “they can’t do that kind of humor.” With no hesitation, Boone replied, “You cannot do blasphemy, yes.” Not only that, but he claimed that “at least 90 percent of the American public” wants the FCC to have the power to yank the license of any broadcaster that airs blasphemous content.
There’s just one problem with Boone’s proposal–it would be blatantly unconstitutional. In 1952, the Supreme Court ruled in Joseph Burstyn, Inc., v. Wilson that state-level blasphemy laws are an unconstitutional prior restraint. That decision is better known for definitively ruling that movies have First Amendment protection. Since then, no one–not even Scalia, Thomas, or Alito–has found any reason to overturn it.
It’s hard to believe Boone doesn’t know that his proposal would shred six decades of precedent. And yet, he doesn’t even begin to justify why it should be overturned. He openly admitted that “it’s hard to determine” what exactly constitutes blasphemy. However, he believed that calling God “by some profane name” would be blasphemous to “anybody with a rational mind”–and SNL’s skit, in which God was called “a boob man” and “gay,” would certainly qualify.
We need not ask what else Boone would consider to be blasphemous content. After all, he’s already told us what they are. If his screeds against “SNL” are any indication, anyone who dares to “come against God and the Holy Spirit” or “speak against God and his purpose” would be committing blasphemy. In Boone’s view, anyone who engages in this would have to answer to God. And apparently he wants the state to be God’s agent.
However, Boone himself may have given us a very good reason why the Supreme Court decided to shred these laws in the first place. Unless I heard him wrong, he openly admitted that such laws would be extremely vague, to the point that any religious body could legally gag anyone seen as “coming against God and the Holy Spirit” or “speaking against God and his purpose.” And that’s before we even discuss whether non-Christian religions could use this to gag critical speech.
It’s not the first time that we’ve heard a religious right spokesman call for the return of blasphemy laws. Back in 2014, Canadian conservative activist Tristan Emmanuel wrote a column for BarbWire–the mouthpiece of Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber–contending that blasphemy amounts to slander against “the ultimate authority of a nation” and “the very foundation of its laws, values, public institutions, and leadership.”
Emmanuel claimed the Burstyn decision gave people carte blanche to denigrate God. He called for that decision to be reversed in order to spare this country from divine judgment. What Boone is saying is really no different.
Boone has gone silent on Facebook since initially blasting “SNL.” You would have thought that he would have shared his interview with Colmes there. Hmmm–apparently he knew he would get called out for openly declaring that he wants to shred the First Amendment.
