I came across this article by Rob Boston while researching something else. Originally published in August 2002, it was enough of a gem to pass along here. Boston is the Asst. Director of Communications for the national office of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
...a type of "generic Protestantism" reigned supreme in the late nineteenth century, often receiving favors and special treatment in the law. Blasphemy was a criminal offense in most states, and the laws were occasionally enforced. Religious leaders, working with government officials, had great sway over the types of public amusements allowed. Religiously inspired censorship was common. Mandatory Sunday-closing laws were the norm in most states. Protestant prayer and Bible reading saturated many public schools. Other religions, especially Roman Catholicism and Mormonism, were viewed with official distrust and suspicion.
...
Religious leaders frequently enlisted government authorities and newspaper editors in high-profile crusades against various forms of entertainment that today are considered benign. The theater was one frequent target. In 1879 an eccentric Jewish entrepreneur named Salmi Morse attempted to stage in San Francisco a theatrical version of Christ's passion. Insisting it was sinful and sacrilegious to put the life of Christ on the stage, outraged ministers besieged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which banned the play. Morse went to court, but lost when a local judge ruled that his Passion play offended Christianity, which government had a right--indeed, a duty--to protect: "The Board of Supervisors," wrote Judge Morrison, "has seen fit to prohibit the exhibition in question because such an exhibition is, in their opinion, against good morals, because it is calculated to bring religion, which is
the foundation of all morality, into ridicule and contempt, and because the sacred mysteries of the passion and death of the Redeemer upon the cross are too solemn and sacred to be made the subject of a theatrical exhibition."
Morse had equally dismal luck in the supposedly cosmopolitan New York City. Egged on by a crusading newspaper editor named Harrison Grey Fiske, the city's Board of Aldermen drafted legislation banning the play. Three years later, when Morse was finally able to stage the Passion play briefly in New York, a state senator quickly prepared legislation to prevent "any attempt to personate or represent Jesus Christ, the Savior of Mankind, in any exhibition, show, play, dramatic or theatrical performance." Morse was effectively put out of business.
...
But religious leaders and their willing partners in government did more than just ban racy books and arrest blasphemers. A common problem in the "good old days" of late-nineteenth-century America was the fixation on banning commerce and work on Sundays. Most states had Sunday laws that were rigorously enforced, and always at the insistence of religious leaders intent on defending majority religious practices.
There is much more at link:
http://www.auindy.org/good.html
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