North Carolina is unique in constitutional history. Two conventions were called “for the purpose of deliberating and determining on the proposed Plan of Federal Government.” The first was held at Hillsborough from July 21, 1788 to August 4, 1788, when delegates, voted 1/15

“by a large majority neither to ratify nor rejected the Constitution.” [FN177] Subsequently, in convention at Ashville, North Carolina ratified the Constitution. [FN178] A 1715 declaration by North Carolina’s legislature that all laws made for establishment of the church & 2/15

indulgence for Protestant dissenters to remain in place. [FN179] North Carolina’s Constitution, 1776, provided: all office holders “shall take an oath to the State” & “an oath of office,”
[FN180] “all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according 3/15

to the dictates of their own consciences,” [FN181] “no clergyman, or preacher ... shall be capable of being a member of” the legislature, [FN182] “no person” who denies the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion is incapable of holding any office,” [FN183] and 4/15

“there shall be no establishment of any one religious church or denomination in this State, in preference to any other.” [FN184] At the Hillsborough convention, there was argument about religion and its absence from the Constitution. A Baptist minister, 5/15

Henry Abbott, said: “Some are afraid & [] wish to know ... whether the general government may not make laws infringing their religious liberties. [W]hat religion shall be established. ..[A] majority of the community are Presbyterians. I am against any exclusive establishment; 6/15

but if there were any, I would prefer the Episcopal. The exclusion of religious tests is by many thought dangerous and impolitic. They suppose that if there be no religious test required, pagans, deists, & Mahometans might obtain offices among us. [S]enators and representatives 7/15

might all be pagans. Every person employed by the general and state governments is to take an oath. Some are desirous to know how and by whom they are to swear, since no religious tests are required - whether they are to swear by Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Proserpine, or Pluto. ...” 8/15

James Iredell, the grandson of a clergyman and one of the first SCOTUS justices, led those who favored ratification. He replied to Abbott: “America has set an example to mankind ... that a man may be of different religious sentiments from our own, without being a bad 9/15

member of society. ... I consider the clause under consideration as one of the strongest proofs that could be adduced, that it was the intention of those who formed this system to establish a general religious liberty in America. [It] is objected that the people of America may, perhaps, 10/15

choose representatives who have no religion at all [] pagans & Mahometans may be Admitted into offices. But how is it possible to exclude any set of men, without taking away that principle of religious freedom which we ourselves so warmly contend for?” [FN185] 11/15

Iredell could have copped out and assured opponents of ratification that the religious freedom was not so broad. “Christian” nationalists today either are ignorant of this history. Theirs is a blue-eyed, blonde-haired Jesus that is total fiction. 12/15

Footnotes:
FN177. 4 Elliot’s Debate, pp. 250-51.
FN178. Constitution of the United States, “Adoption of Constitution,” West’s Annotated Indiana Code, Constitution,” (1999), p. 29. 13/15

FN179. North Carolina Ante-Revolutionary War history, 1 Elliot’s Debates, pp. 40-41.
FN180. North Carolina Constitution, 1776, Art. XII.
FN181. Id., Art. XIX.
FN182. Id., Art. XXXI. 14/15

FN183. Id., Art. XXII.
FN184. Id., Art. XXXIV.
FN185. 4 Elliot’s Debates, pp. 191-200. 15/15