They're not as wrong as they seem to be. The bill of rights, as originally intended (and before the passage of the 14th amendment), did not apply to the state governments. So state governments were, in fact, free to have an official state religion.

The bill is written in present tense, so they are exactly as wrong as they could be.

1868 being something like last week. Both are in the past?

I would further argue that the founders of the current Constitution created it specifically as a response to the established colonies and the moronic border scuffles, tariffs and in-religion vs out-religion abuses of the pre-Constitutional era in this here land.

(and before the passage of the 14th amendment)

Meaning that the rest of your comment is inapplicable to the present situation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

So how about a bill that would make it a crime to be a Christian? That ought to bring up some conversation.

Why make it a crime? Fix up another constitutional excess at the same time, and make them slaves.

Thus confirming their origin story, and validating their persecution complex. Flawless victory.

And that would be why the First Amendment was created to stop both sides of religious and non-religious divide from criminalizing or privileging the other. Keep these kinds of things out equals less problems for all.

"There’s only one piece of writing they care about, and it’s not the one they were elected to defend."

Not so sure about that, either, to be honest.

I've always thought that when we have our elected officials swear in on their Holy Book which they pick and choose, we honestly can't be shocked that they're going to pick and choose the Constitution, as well. If they pick and choose their Holy Book... The Constitution means even less to them, so there's no way they'll follow it either.

They rely on the myth that you have to acknowledge religion to qualify for Public Office or Trust. This State helped Ratify the US Constitution and forgot about the No Religious Test clause of Article VI.
Whitewashed American History for you.

This may be a little off topic but in the same category:

Painting of Jesus coming down in Jackson school

Thanks for posting this, good to hear.

“Our insurance company denied coverage, and we cannot risk taxpayer money at this time,”

I think the insurance company had a better understanding of what was going on than the school system.

They're so against the 14th amendment that they'll pretend it doesn't exist.

Voters should remember that when the next elections come around.

The hell with that; impeach these totalitarian idiots.

No kidding. It's sad that legislators in this country don't give a fuck about anything except what furthers them.

These guys would change their tune pretty quick if some other religion was becoming the majority... How can they really be so confident that the state religion would always be their personal favorite?

Indeed. Therein lies the irony.

What would be even more ironic is if both reps, while being Christians, were each themselves practitioners of a different branch of Christianity.

Which one you gonna pick to be the Official State Religion guys? If I were a reporter covering this I'd try really hard to find out what churches these guys go to, hopefully they're different, and then get them on camera to pointedly ask them which Rep's religion is getting the pass for Official State Religion.

I've been living in Guatemala for the past 12 years, and perhaps I've lost touch with my "homeland", but are things really that bad down South? Do they feel their constituents (the majority, obviously not all) would really support them and then reelect them down the road?

They do. It's called the Bible Belt for a reason, and that is due to the high number of Bible-thumpers who would probably like nothing more than to see our "muslim" president kicked out of office in favor of a God-preaching pastor (ignoring however many sex scandals he has going for him) because they all know that America is a Christian Nation (tm) and that the Constitution was based off the Ten Commandments.

Of course, not all of the people in the Bible Belt are so zealot-like. They just compose the majority.

Oh, I know the South,I graduated from College of Charleston and taught Biology in Beaufort, I just didn't think they had become that separatist. I had many a parent conference, let me tell you. The best one is when a father/prison guard came to talk to me about all the questions his daughter was bringing to the dinner table, I thought I was toast. Fortunately, she had stuck with her faith, and was merely tested and he thanked me for it. I wonder if she is still in the fold this many years later.

Yes, and yes. And sadly, they're correct.

That's their entire reason for doing this: Earning points with the people who will be voting to potentially re-elect them. It's a really common thing for US politicians to do. They put up these bills that everyone with an ounce of sense knows won't pass, but they can then run back home and say "See? I'm fighting the good fight! It's the evil godless Liberals' faults!"

Can't the state I live in be in the news for something good... ever?

With all due respect, living in Florida was no picnic for that very reason.

In 2008, the news from North Carolina reported the death of Jesse Helms. That was the last good news I remember from your state. It's got to be rough.

Other headlines on wral.com included bills to lengthen the waiting period for a divorce from one year to two years, ban UNC from implementing gender-neutral housing, and creating home-schooling tax credits that would affect the funding for public schools. Sorry.

Such ignorant assholes. Can't even do their goddamn research before they blather on and attempt to pass wholely unconstitutional laws.

Emerson vs. Board of Education, bitches.

Maybe you meant "holy unconstitutional laws"?

Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Remember to make it super-specific then.

"Christian" is way too vague -- make it a specific flavor of Baptist or Presbyterian. FIGHT!

(Wait... did't England's "State Religion" make The Church of England a lame monopoly in comparison to other places?)

Time for some good 'ol Southern Crusades.Yeeeeee Hawwwwww! Let all the Christians gun it out to see who's version of ancient Biblical mythology wins out. Kill! Kill! KIll! Maybe the Wiccans will have them outnumbered by the time the feudin' stops. It's looking more and more like a race to see which Bible bangin' state can become the first theocracy. Fu**tards!

This is a good move for the GOP. Wanna know why? This law will obviously be challenged by secular groups. When it is, they can play the martyr card and pretend they are being persecuted and rally the unthinking masses to their side by claiming they are "defending Christianity."

Yes they can, but the problem is this overt anti-federalism, while smacking darkly of the antebellum period, is largely relegated to the South it seems. The further problem with that is that many Southern Protestants cannot stand Catholicism, and there are plenty of conservative Catholics in northern and western states they'd need as allies in such a political fight. And this is to say nothing of the obvious fact that Protestantism itself has an untold number of differing sects, many of which are dealing with their own internal dogmatic struggles with modernity, and not all of which are as fervent as the Southern Baptists.

You are definitely right that they in part are trying to orchestrate "persecution" so they can play that card and gain support. I don't think they will get it outside of the South though, and while there have been some notable cases of FFRF and/or ACLU fighting court cases to take down images of Jesus, crosses, or end pre-public meeting invocations/prayers, my very rough mental check tells me more of those stories are coming out of Southern states. We also have the South to thank for "Judge" Roy Moore, of Decalogue monument fame.

Just like years ago when x-tisns made up the persecution. ..that did not happen as much as they said it did

Absolutely correct. For Warren & Ford, and any other GOPers who support them, this is a no-lose scenario. They will suffer NO consequences as a result. Count on it.

As for this bill being doomed, I don't assume it is. Religious Rightists in NC are sure to support it.

My Grandfather was a very religious southern man that believed in the separation of church and state because he didn't want the government to tell him how to worship. These politicians would not have his vote.

The establishment of a state religion can serve only one purpose, really: the official marginalization of other religions. I can think of nothing more un-American.

There should be a way to deduct damages and court costs from the pensions of legislators who advance frivolous and blatantly unconstitutional legislation like this.

The 10th amendment is not known as "nullification:"

Read again: "The Tenth Amendment argument..."

In other words, citing the Tenth Amendment ignores the Fourteenth Amendment (and possibly the Supremacy Clause).

fortunately states do have the right to have an official religion just as several have laws saying that unless you have a religion that believes in god you cant serve public office.

Uh, no.

Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

You should try actually reading the Fourteenth Amendment. Particularly the Equal Protection Clause. States do *not* have the right to establish any more than the federal level can. That's why those clauses about atheists/non-Christians not being allowed to be elected to government posts are invalid.

It'll fail, they know it will fail, and secretly they probably want it to fail. What it's likely to do, though, is get them reelected.

Complaining about this is the wrong path to take.

The only way to get them to see the error of their ways is to organize a massive demonstration in favor of their proposed bill; The kicker being Islam the state religion called for. It won't go through anyway and if people, Muslim or not, rally for it then these Republican clowns would realize the "danger" of a state endorsed religion.

I would gladly take part in a march such as that to teach them a lesson. Even if we do have to use Muslims as the "bad guys". Nothing personal, it's just because people are scarred of them right now.

No reason to use Islam like this, its already hard enough for decent law abiding Islamic Americans just trying to get on with their lives without being made the whipping boys of a march in favour of Islam as the Official State Religion.

They get enough of that from the likes of the morons over at Faux News, they don't need it from us.

No, it would be better to use a sect of Christianity that many mainstream "Christians" don't consider to actually be "Christian", something like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses.

The issue with remembering this during the next election is A) this bill is coming from Senators from the backwoods. And B) Republicans here have moved swiftly to redraw all the district boundaries to give the republicans even more of a majority. Sick what they are doing.