Here, just like the previous three state
constitutions North Carolina's requires any one serving in offices of
trust to ascribe to some form of general but not denominational
Christianity. Further, just as the other three this is not considered by
them to be the establishment of one religion over another or an
official religion of the state. One must remember that the
representatives who were instrumental in writing these state
constitutions were the same ones responsible for the federal one. To
them these state constitutions were not a threat to personal liberty. On
the contrary to their thinking, to the extent that a constitution could
be an influence in their states they were viewed as as something that
secured liberty. The newly formed federal government however was
regarded as something that could indeed grow into a threat to personal
liberty. This is why it was specifically restricted in the first
amendment from any interference whatsoever in the religious affairs of
the people or any state. This then is the perversion that progressives have educated
public school children with for the last half century. They have used
the federal government, mostly the courts to completely control the
public religious affairs of the states in absolute defiance of the
federal constitution. This has been done with specific goals in
mind which in the end will result in the restriction of personal liberty
and the expansion of government control over peoples lives.
XXXI. That no clergyman, or preacher of the
gospels of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member of
either the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he
continues in the exercise of the pastoral function.
XXXII. 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.
XXXIV. That there shall be no establishment of
any one religious church or denomination in this State, in preference to
any other; neither shall any person, on any presence whatsoever, be
compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith or
judgment, nor be obliged to pay, for the purchase of any glebe, or the
building of any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister
or ministry, contrary to what he believes right, of has voluntarily and
personally engaged to perform; but all persons shall be at liberty to
exercise their own mode of worship: -- Provided, That nothing herein
contained shall be construed to exempt preachers of treasonable or
seditious discourses, from legal trial and punishment
To view the entire constitution follow this
hyperlink.
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