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{"id":462,"date":"2009-12-17T15:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T15:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/uu-atheist-elected-to-city-council\/"},"modified":"2009-12-17T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T15:17:00","slug":"uu-atheist-elected-to-city-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/uu-atheist-elected-to-city-council.html","title":{"rendered":"UU Atheist Elected to City Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From the First Amendment Center<\/a> via WitchVox<\/a>, here\u2019s a story of Cecil Bothwell<\/a>, an Asheville, NC city council member who\u2019s an atheist. Apparently, some conservative Christians are threatening to sue the city for seating him, since the North Carolina state constitution prohibits anyone from holding public office \u201cwho shall deny the being of Almighty God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Never mind the fact that Article VI of the US Constitution prohibits any religious test for office holders, and that the application of that article to state and local governments was affirmed by the US Supreme Court in 1961.<\/p>\n

Bothwell is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to see some religious diversity in government. I haven\u2019t been to Asheville in many years, but it\u2019s become a Southern outpost for Pagans, artists, gay and lesbian people, and non-conformists of all types.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"