Church of England Urges Blasphemy Revision

The Church of England has recommended that Britain’s medieval blasphemy laws be replaced with legislation protecting all religions, not just Christianity.

The church statement, issued Thursday by the office of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, called for enactment of “a new statutory offense whose protection extends to religions in general, and not merely to the Christian faith and the doctrines of the Church of England.”

It said “existing law is defective,” adding that the church favors a measure that would “penalize anyone who publishes grossly abusive or insulting material relating to a religion with the purpose of outraging religious feelings.”

Parliament in 1967 abolished the Blasphemy Act of 1697 that laid down a maximum of three years in prison for anyone denying the truth of the Christian religion. Blasphemy has remained an offense under Common Law dating back to medieval times but has been rarely used in modern times.

The most recent case involved a newspaper that catered to homosexuals. The 1978 blasphemous libel case resulted in a fine for the newspaper and a suspended nine-month sentence for its editor.

A jury found the newspaper guilty for publishing a poem that portrayed the crucified Jesus Christ as the subject of a homosexual fantasy.

Partly because of the trial, the newspaper went out of business.

It had been the first prosecution for blasphemy since 1921, when J. W. Gott was given nine months’ hard labor for suggesting that Jesus entered Jerusalem in the manner of a circus clown.

The government took no action on a 1985 recommendation by its legal review body, the Law Commissioners, to sweep away all offenses of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.

The Church of England rejected wholesale abolition of the laws, but endorsed a dissenting report from the Law Commission urging that present legislation be replaced by wider protection for all religions.

The church’s position has been transmitted to legal authorities, the church said.