Imagine a state with a constitution that officially prohibited Christians from holding public office.

Imagine a state constitution that prohibited Christians from even offering testimony in court.

Imagine a state official there trying to amend that constitution so as to do away with these prohibitions.

Imagine that attempt failing.

What do you suppose the reaction of Christians would be?

Would we ever stop hearing about these outrageous prohibitions until they were repealed?

Why is the reaction so much different when atheists are the ones who are being singled out and treated like second-class citizens?

—– Atheist Revival In Arkansas (David Waters/On Faith/The Washington Post; Feb 13)

Hard to say what was more remarkable about the resolution that was read into the record and referred to committee Wednesday by a member of the 87th Arkansas General Assembly.

The resolution itself: HJR 1009: AMENDING THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO REPEAL THE PROHIBITION AGAINST AN ATHEIST HOLDING ANY OFFICE IN THE CIVIL DEPARTMENTS OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS OR TESTIFYING AS A WITNESS IN ANY COURT.

Or the fact that it was submitted by the Green Party’s highest-ranking elected official in America, state Rep. Richard Carroll of North Little Rock, who was elected in November winning more than 80 percent of the vote in his district.

Arkansas is one of half a dozen states that still exclude non-believers from public office. Article 19 Section 1 of the 1874 Arkansas Constitution states that “No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any court.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled all such state provisions unconstitutional and unenforceable in a 1961 ruling in a Maryland case: “We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person ‘to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.’”

Carroll is merely trying to do some symbolic constitutional housecleaning, but it won’t be easy. [In fact, Carroll's bill never made it out of committee and died on May 1 when the legislature adjourned.]
In 2005, state Rep. Buddy Blair filed a resolution to affirm Arkansas’ support for the separation of church and state. The resolution lost 39-44 in the House.

And last month, Rep. Lindsley Smith offered a resolution to declare Jan. 29 at Thomas Paine Day in Arkansas.

“I consider myself a very religious person,” Smith told the committee considering her bill to designate Jan. 29 as Thomas Paine Day in Arkansas. Paine, the colonial patriot who wrote “Common Sense,” a pamphlet that built support for the American Revolution. Paine also was a Deist who believed in God but not religion.

The proposal died in committee, even after Smith assured her colleagues that she was not an atheist….

One could argue that none of this matters – that the US Supreme Court has spoken and that the Arkansas Constitution (among others) no longer has the power to harm a single atheist.

Would Christians be satisfied with that?

Should they be?

It seems to me that the Arkansas legislature sent a very clear – and very ugly – message when it turned its back on Carroll’s bill and allowed it to die.

And journalists seem to have mostly looked the other way.

Imagine how different things might have been had Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly been a member of the group that was being treated like this.

Imagine the national firestorm of outrage they might well have kindled and thrown gasoline on, day after day, until Arkansas acted to rid itself of this symbol of hate and irrational prejudice….

I honestly wonder sometimes how some Christians manage to walk from one room to the next without tripping over all their double standards.