>>The North Carolina Constitution of 1776:
>>
>>
32. That no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of either the Old or New Testaments or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office, or place of trust or profit, in the civil department, within this State>>
>>
http://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/nc-1776.htm>>
>>Many people forget that the limitations of religion and government enforcing one were limited to the federal government in our federal constitution and meant to be left up to the states because at that time each state pretty much had its own religion. In 1776, the primary religion in North Carolina was protestant.
>>
>>
>>Current Constitution:
>>
>>The North Carolina Constitution
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Legislation/constitution/article6.html:>>
>>
Sec. 8. Disqualifications for office.
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>>The following persons shall be disqualified for office:
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>>First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.
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>
>snip
>
>That's kind of scary to be in a current state constitution. Even in the Bible Belt.
It's actually been liberalized quite a bit. Now it's just disqualification from office. The penalty used to be "smiting" <g>
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
