The Sodomites , definitely. But Americans shy away from religious colloquialisms, as blasphemy is for reasons unknown to me , a crime.
I'll bugger off now.
Perhaps a little context would be helpful...
There has not been a federal law against blasphemy in the United States since 1791, when the First Amendment to the Constitution was adopted (also known as the Bill of Rights).
In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that First Amendment protections (i.e. freedom of speech) applied to state governments (
Gitlow v. New York).
In 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the issue of blasphemy in cinema (
Burstyn v. Wilson), when it ruled that "The state has no legitimate interest in protecting any or all religions from views distasteful to them... It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine..." In making this ruling, the Supreme Court unequivocally ruled that laws against blasphemy violated the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Four states (Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan - what's up with the "M" states?) still have laws against blasphemy, but these date back to the founding of the country, and for the most part, no one knows they exist. Their continued existence is a consequence of the federal system, the distribution of powers between federal and state governments, and the fact that it is a hassle for state legislatures to address out-dated laws (they are just ignored, and if anyone is charged with violating one of them, then the law is struck down through the legal process).
The last person to be jailed in the United States for blasphemy was
Abner Kneeland in 1838.
Were anyone to actually be charged with blasphemy today in Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, or Michigan, the case would be thrown out and the law would be struck down - as the Supreme Court has already ruled that laws against blasphemy violate the First Amendment.
For example, in a rather bizarre situation, in 1977, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted a blasphemy law that forbade corporations from incorporating names containing words that "constitute blasphemy, profane cursing or swearing, or that profane the Lord’s name." In 2007, filmmaker George Kalman had filed a limited liability company named
I Choose Hell Productions, LLC. A week later he had received an unsigned letter explaining that his application was rejected because his company’s name could not “contain words that constitute blasphemy.” In February 2009, Kalman filed suit to have the provision against blasphemy struck down as unconstitutional. On June 30, 2010, U.S. District Judge Michael M. Bayslon of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ruled in favor of Kalman, finding that Pennsylvania's blasphemy statute violated both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. For references, see:
https://web.archive.org/web/2011060....uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/10D0634P.pdf
Meanwhile, people are being executed for blasphemy in Iran and Saudi Arabia. In Russia, anti-blasphemy laws have become a new tool of the state to suppress dissent, as Putin has embraced the Eastern Orthodox Church as an element of Russian nationalism. See this document for current laws against blasphemy that are actually acted upon:
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