Not Your Mama over at Coyote Angry has been busy the last few days giving fundamentalists like Fred Phelps a beatdown. In this post I learned that in the state where I was born it's against the law for me to run for public office.

Arkansas, Texas, Massachussetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Maryland all have state constitutions containing language expressly barring non-theists from holding public office. Some contain language also barring many non-Christians of other faiths.

I haven't lived in Arkansas for many years, but it still irritates me to learn things like this about my home state. It doesn't really surprise me, but it still bugs me. I live in Missouri now, which apparently doesn't have that particular discrimination written into it's constitution, but other than the urban areas of St. Louis and Kansas City it's just as much a red state. I bet if an evangelical atheist like myself were to run for local office (even if they were smooth talking and pretty) they would get more death threats than votes. I'd sure like to see it happen though.