Those who wrote Georgia's original constitution
as did the writers of the rest of the original constitutions
thought it wise to require that those who occupied offices of trust at
least be nominal Christians. This was wisdom based on practical
experience rather than political considerations. Other than those who
have some desire or agenda that heavens governance would interfere
with; who would not want someone who acknowledges the morality that
Jesus Christ and the Bible as a whole taught assume the responsibilities
of government offices? Is it wise to allow people who reject the
laws and the commandments of scripture concerning their personal and
public behavior in offices of trust? Those who claim that the private
behavior, (especially the private sexual behavior,) of a politician has
no bearing on their public service are deceivers. This was common
knowledge to the founders of this state as well as the founders of the
nation as a whole.
All publicly mandated education of the day was administered by
Christians, or at least people who taught Christian principles. I assume
that one of the reasons article LVI is written that way is to insure
that the population is not forced to pay for an education in their local
community that they do not agree with. Since local tax payer dollars
were funding local education that was administered by churches article
LXII wisely separates those who are receiving public funds from those
who are spending them.
ART. VI. The representatives shall be chosen out
of the residents in each county, who shall have resided at least twelve
months in this State, and three months in the county where they shall be
elected; except the freeholders of the counties of Glynn and Camden, who
are in a state of alarm, and who shall have the liberty of choosing one
member each, as specified in the articles of this constitution, in any
other county, until they have residents sufficient to qualify them for
more; and they shall be of the Protestant religion, and of the age of
twenty-one years, and shall be possessed in their own right of two
hundred and fifty acres of land, or some property to the amount of two
hundred and fifty pounds.
ART. LVI. All persons whatever shall have the
free exercise of their religion; provided it be not repugnant to the
peace and safety of the State; and shall not, unless by consent, support
any teacher or teachers except those of their own profession
ART. LXII. No clergyman of any denomination
shall be allowed a seat in the legislature.
To view the entire constitution follow this
hyperlink.
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