THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS
Please view these definitions
of the terminology for the comments I write about the articles of these constitutions.
This is one of the states
where
general Christianity was officially established as the
state religion. All ministers were state supported through taxation to the extreme
that without the states explicit permission private donations to them
or churches were not allowed.
There is
no establishment of Christianity as the official state religion in this
constitution. Only an oath to hold public office that affirms the
Father, The Son and the Holly Ghost, one God and the
Bible as given by divine inspiration. Slavery was constitutionally
banned also.
Laws for the encouragement of virtue, and prevention of vice
and immorality, shall be made and constantly kept in force, and
provision shall be made for their due execution: with Religion as the
foundation of virtue along with an oath acknowledging God, punishment
and reward, and the Old and New Testaments given by divine inspiration
are contained in this constitution.
That
no person, who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the
Protestant religion, or the divine authority either of 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. Within this framework of this article freedom of conscience
and religion is guaranteed.
A
clear understanding of Biblical Christianity and civil government are
contained in Virginia's bill of rights.
All state
representatives must be of the protestant religion and unless you
consent to it the state may only require you to support teachers of your
own Christian denomination.
THE
STATE OF NEW YORK
1777
The
simple affirmation of religious liberty, as opposed to the many references
to the disestablishment of the official state religion of
the King of England, and of the European model of state imposed religion
seems to be the main idea of this constitution.
This
States constitution goes into great detail in its establishment of
General Christianity as the official state religion. It even goes so far
as to establish constitutionally just what is general Christianity and
outlaws anyone in any way from hindering the conversion of someone to
the truth by speech or deed. It pays the salaries of Christian minister
through taxes collected by the state.
The
state of Massachusetts
1780
Another
State the constitutionally established general Christianity as the religion
of the state. The legislator had the power to force towns to build and
maintain places of worship and the citizens to attend if the town had
not already done so voluntarily.
This
states constitution affirms a number of times the validity of the Bible
as the Word of God and that it is the duty of all citizens to submit to
its teachings as their conscience dictates. It requires one to be a
professing Christian to hold public office, and appears to be a energetic
supporter and ally of the gospel in making the citizens of the state
good and wise.
This
states constitutional mandates go only as far as requiring by law that
individual communities at their own expense
support and maintain public protestant teachers of piety, religion, and
morality. This constitution also mandates one profess to be a Christian
to hold public office.
Outside
of this mandate: "No person who denies the being of God, or a
future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the
civil department of the State," this state has no oaths,
affirmations or establishment clauses in it's constitution.
That laws shall be passed by
the Legislature which shall secure to each and every denomination of
religious societies... according to
their number of adherents of the profits arising from the land
granted by Congress, for the support of religion, agreeably to
the (Northwest) ordinance.
That
no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with
the rights of conscience seems to be the guiding principle of this
states constitution. That human slavery may never be introduced into
this state nor the recognition of slavery in other states. That state
trust lands be used for schools and seminaries in accordance with the
Northwest Ordinance.
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