NC rejected New England’s state-supported religion

“Except in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, both founded as islands of religious tolerance, the colonies had all maintained religious ‘establishments’ in which taxes on the whole population supported the local majority Christian church, usually the Church of England in the South and the Congregational churches in New England….

“Over the course of the Revolution…regional religious contrasts yawned wider as the southern states largely abandoned their church establishments, led by North Carolina and Virginia. North Carolina’s 1776 constitution forbade religious taxes and made contributing to or attending church a purely private and voluntary act….”

— From “The First Presidential Contest: 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy” by Jeffrey L. Pasley (2013)

Also prohibited by the 1776 constitution: clergy holding political office.