Okay, probably not in practice. But by the letter of the Arkansas constitution, any “person who denies the being of God” is not allowed to hold a position in any government office or testify in court.

Last week, state Rep. Richard Carroll, a Catholic and newly elected member of the Green Party, introduced a measure to eliminate this surprising constitutional holdover. In support of Carroll, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty wrote a letter to the Arkansas legislature objecting to the anti-atheist provision:

The history of the United States is replete with laws designed to keep persons of the “wrong faith” from participating in public life, said the Becket Fund letter. Many of the nation’s pilgrims and earliest immigrants came to the America to escape similar laws in Europe. They then wrote their own laws prohibiting other faiths, often directed at Catholics, Quakers or Jews. Most of those laws have been removed from state constitutions.

South Carolina removed similar laws discriminating against certain religions a few years ago, but such laws still exist in Texas and Tennessee.

“While it is unlikely that these laws will ever be enforced, removing them is more than symbolic,” said Eric Rassbach, national litigation director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “It signals to U.S. citizens and to the rest of the world, that the freedom and sanctity of conscience – including the right to believe there is no God at all – is a fundamental right for all people.”

This is, of course, true in its purest sense. But what are your thoughts on such provisions in terms of how the Founders and early citizens of this country viewed the link between just government and faith?