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Constitutional Oath
The Constitution of the Sovereign State of North Carolina: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God…”
As an observation, isn’t it a denial of the being of Almighty God to assume Him to be insufficiently Almighty to fight His own battles? I mean, how Almighty do you need to be before you can release your minions to tackle corruption and apostasy within their churches?
Should an atheist councilman in NC be allowed to serve public office? Commentary
Should an atheist be allowed to serve in public office? Some people in Asheville, North Carolina don’t believe that the councilman-elect, Cecil Bothwell, should be allowed to take his seat on the city council based entirely on the fact that he is an atheist.
Article 6, section 8 of North Carolina’s state Constitution says:
The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.”
Bothwell’s political opponents are talking about the possibility of a lawsuit against the City of Asheville and the Board of Elections, should Bothwell be sworn into office.
There is one little problem for said God-fearing opponents, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the court precedents that have established the U.S. Constitution’s authority to trump state and local laws when conflicts occur.
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The very first sentence of the very first amendment to our constitution, the top of the list of what became known as the “Bill of Rights,” not only allows people to establish whatever form of religion they want and to be protected from any governmental “prohibiting the free exercise therof,” it also prohibits government from establishing any official religion. By not being permitted to form an “official religion,” likewise the government cannot place any religious requirements on a government post.
But there’s more, pesky, federalist constitutional meddling that’s bad news for Bothwell’s opponents, Article VI of the U.S. Constitution which says:
No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
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