Oh, THAT religious test

You know, when I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

On Texas Independence Day I wrote that, given the rhetoric bashing the priesthood in which so many Texas revolutionaries indulged, it'd be difficult to make a case that Texas' founders wanted to found a Christian, not a secular state. Well, I'm an idiot. Maybe the word "Christian" isn't in the text, but check out the language of Article 1, Section 4 of the Texas Consititution:

No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.

No religious test except that you have to believe in God! That's current (if meaningless) language right there. (It was invalidated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1961 and 1978.) I'm not sure if that was in the original 1846 state Constitution or if it's a post-Civil War add-on, but ... Damn!

Via a really cool site I found via CrimProf blog called Dumb Laws