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CONSTITUTION
South
Carolina
1778
XXXVIII.
That all persons and religious societies who acknowledge
that there is one God, and a future state of rewards and
punishments, and that God is publicly to be worshipped,
shall be freely tolerated. The Christian Protestant religion
shall be deemed, and is hereby constituted and declared
to be, the established religion of this State. That all
denominations of Christian Protestants in this State, demeaning
themselves peaceably and faithfully, shall enjoy equal religious
and civil privileges. . . . And that whenever fifteen or
more male persons, not under twenty-one years of age, professing
the Christian Protestant religion, and agreeing to unite
themselves in a society for the purposes of religious worship,
they shall . . . be constituted a church, and be esteemed
and regarded in law as of the established religion of the
State, and on a petition to the legislature shall be entitled
to be incorporated and to enjoy equal privileges. . . .
[E]ach society so petitioning shall have agreed to and subscribe
in a book the following five articles . . . :
1st. That
there is one eternal God, and a future state of
rewards and punishments.
2d. That
God is publicly to be worshipped.
3d. That
the Christian religion is the true religion.
4th. That
the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
are of divine inspiration, and are the rule of faith
and practice.
5th. That
it is lawful and the duty of every man being thereunto
called by those that govern, to bear witness to
the truth.
.
. . No person shall, by law, be obliged to pay towards the
maintenance and support of a religious worship that he does
not freely join in, or has not voluntarily engaged to support.
. . .
Source:
A Nation Dedicated to Religious Liberty 118-119 (Adams and
Emmerich: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990)
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