Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

North Carolina Legislation Would Allow Establishment Of State Religion

644630Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed a bill that would allow the state to establish a state religion and further declares the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings. What is astonishing is that eleven GOP members are pushing the law, which rejects not just the core principles of our country but would move the state closer to the model of government currently ripping Egypt and other nations apart in mixing religion and government. The main sponsors, state Reps. Carl Ford (R-China Grove) and Harry Warren (R-Salisbury), seem to have little more judgment than they do knowledge of our Constitutional system. Obviously, the law is facially unconstitutional but it is the contempt for our separation of church and state that is truly unnerving in these members.


The sponsors insist that as a sovereign state, North Carolina cannot be barred from establishing an official religion. The bill reads as follows:

SECTION 1. The North Carolina General Assembly asserts that the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.
SECTION 2. The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.

This is part of a belief that the First Amendment only applies to the federal government. Under this theory, the rights of free speech, free press, assembly, and religion can be denied by states. Notably, North Carolina’s Constitution still prohibits people who do not believe in God from taking public office.

Ford attended a Community College in 1978 and has a high school degree. He is described as “Broadcaster, owns two Gospel music stations.” He stated his priority is “Anything having to do with pro-life” followed by transportation. He also stressed that “I just read we moved up in the rankings and I know the per pupil spending is pretty high.” So he wants to cut back on public education, which may be a good reason for a state religion to start praying for the future of the state in a competitive global market.

Warren has a degree from Kent State University, 1972. Warren worked as a Human Resources Specialist for Tar Heel Capital Corp., one of the largest Wendy’s restaurant franchises.

Source: WRAL

63 thoughts on “North Carolina Legislation Would Allow Establishment Of State Religion”

  1. “The very beasts associate the ideas of things that are like each other or that have been found together in their experience; and they could hardly survive for a day if they ceased to do so. But who attributes to the animals a belief that the phenomena of nature are worked by a multitude of invisible animals or by one enormous and prodigiously strong animal behind the scenes? It is probably no injustice to the brutes to assume that the honor of devising a theory of this latter sort must be reserved for human reason.” — Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study in Magic and Religion

    Which leads to thoughts in verse concerning::

    Dog’s Plan

    Dog shared Its plan with George last night
    Which gave him such an awful fright
    He stayed awake till dawn’s first light
    Too scared to run and hide

    Dog’s Plan concerned our land’s defense
    And naked, fierce belligerence
    And dreadful leaders proud and dense
    Who waltzed while others died

    He’d often heard barks just as dumb
    But this one left George cold and numb
    For by the sucking of his thumb
    He knew that Dog had lied

    For Dog had nothing planned at all
    It merely longed to see men crawl
    And women moan and babies bawl
    And peoples petrified

    The Book of Dog contained no clue
    That what appeared as Doggie-doo
    Would sicken not just me and you
    But others, too, beside

    Sometimes George thought he understood:
    Dog wanted him to do some good
    By bombing nature’s neighborhood
    With Power’s pesticide

    But George had garbled up the rhyme
    Which led him then to pantomime
    An offer of Medieval Time
    To those he’d terrified

    He claimed he lived to do Dog’s work
    Yet only seemed to play the jerk
    With curling lip and cynic’s smirk
    Upon his mouth so wide

    His reckless swagger left appalled
    A world aghast at one enthralled
    By perquisites and servants called
    And makeup reapplied

    But mom and Dog had always seen
    That newsmen wore their glasses green
    In Emerald City’s vapid sheen
    And they, of course, complied

    So few observed or told of ills
    As boy George, green around the gills,
    Downed fantasies like poison pills
    Which left whole countries fried

    But Dog said not to sweat the small
    That sycophants would dance on call
    At his inauguration ball
    And have him glorified

    Upon the stage he struts and frets
    A player poor without regrets
    As good as little ever gets
    Absorbed in pompous pride

    His monologue no rhyme consults
    His thought the human mind insults:
    A sound and fury that results
    In nothing signified

    His hour upon the stage unfilled
    The audience leaves hardly thrilled
    At having bought bad tickets billed
    As drama unsupplied

    Reviewers chose to see his clothes
    Where he wore none, which only shows
    How power blinds and money glows
    In circles rarefied

    He chose to write his own critique
    Which papers printed: cowed and meek
    Too scared and bought to try and seek
    The truth unsanctified

    He thought himself both shrewd and deft
    Yet brain-wise he had little heft
    His flighty visions only left
    Our nation vilified

    But, anyway, the plagues will come
    They need no fife or beating drum
    To herald where they’re to or from
    This, Dog has certified

    So George was left alone to weep
    Betrayed by Dog, in doo-doo deep,
    As shadows cruel began to creep
    Up on him as he sighed

    Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2005

  3. Let’s not forget that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was originally created to protect Christians from being persecuted by other Christians with a different interpretation (Church of England). In the 18th Century, England was using religion as a repressive tool of government – to punish perceived enemies or rivals to King George III – having nothing to do with the actual doctrine of religion.

    Using today’s demographic predictions, Protestants won’t be the majority religious group in the very near future – so the same group that hates the Establishment Clause today may need it for their own protection one day.

  4. If they would just enact the Faith of the Dog we would be in fat city. Four legs good, two legs baaaaad. Dog biscuits on every corner, a pope that says nope, a star in the eyes of the beholder, a state without leash laws, …. Oh, I could go on. RepubliCon, you say? Can I vote early and often? North Dakota you say? Is that above South Carolina and Lindseed Graham, Billy’s brother?

  8. “The ‘establishment of religion’ clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between Church and State.'”

    Justice Black, Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 15-16 (1947)

  11. Imagine if a Protestant parent were transferred to Salt Lake City or Detroit (city with a large Muslim population) by his employer and their children were forced to learn about Mormonism or Islam (but not their interpretation of Christianity) in those local schools? The parent at home teaching his children his religion and a teacher at school teaching his child something else that contradicted the parents.

  12. You are right Gyges. What do you think they would do if we told them that the established religion was going to be Muslim?

  13. It’s amazing to me that these people never stop to think “what if the religion established could be one other than mine?”

  15. Don’t these people swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States? If they do, and then they put forth garbage like this, they should be thrown out of office.

  17. As I grow older I become more and more alarmed at the intelligence and mental condition of many politicians.

  18. Re: BobN

    Tenth Amendment rights only apply if they don’t violate other rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The preceding Ninth Amendment states: “The enumeration [naming or listing] in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

    So during the Jim Crow era, some southern states couldn’t use the Tenth Amendment to subvert the Fourteenth Amendment or any other constitutional rights (African-Americans, minorities, etc).

    Today it creates a very interesting Tenth Amendment case on “marijuana legalization” by the state governments and since this issue doesn’t involve other constitutional infringements it seems that state jurisdiction would supersede federal jurisdiction. If the activity remains in the state does the federal government have any jurisdiction at all?

  19. Pingback: North Carolina Republicans Fail Basic Civics - Homebrewed Theology

  20. Didn’t we fight some war or something over this sort of thing…..
    oh, right; The Civil War!! I do, however, like the comment about whether
    other states could simply ignore the Second Amendment; however I live in
    Georgia, and it will never happen.

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