Where did I put that duct tape?
As soon as I find it, here are a couple of candidates for its application:
Lord, have mercy.
- Pat Robertson, and his latest proclamations.
- The American Family Association, demonstrating in their latest action alert a woeful ignorance of history, as well as flat contradiction of the U. S. Constitution.
Lord, have mercy.
posted by Jane Ellen+ at
9:18 PM
3 Comments:
Yeah. Thanks for sending me the link. I have a bit of an opinion about this one, if anyone's interested:
http://juchter.com/family-letter/?p=337
Jane, thanks for some legal backing to some of my ranting. :-)
'According to the Library of Congress, Theodore Roosevelt became the first and only president to take an oath without a Bible in 1901. In 1961, John F. Kennedy took his oath on a Catholic (Douay) version of the Bible. Several Jewish members of Congress have taken their oath on the Torah. Article VI of the Constitution specifies that "... no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." '
Washington Times
'Finally, Prager argues that “for all of American history, Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament, and the many secular elected officials have not believed in the Old Testament either.” I can’t speak to the common practices of Jewish officeholders, but some quick searches reveal that Linda Lingle, the Governor of Hawaii, was sworn in on the Tanakh (more or less the Old Testament); for the reasons I just mentioned, others would have been free to do the same, or to affirm if they preferred.'
'A Senate website reports that Presidents Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover (a Quaker) didn’t swear at all, but rather affirmed. If a Bible was present (the site is silent on that), it wouldn’t have been used as a swearing device. Nixon, also a Quaker, did swear, apparently on two Bibles. This didn’t seem to help.'
Eugene Volokh, in the National Review online
In addition to the examples that AKMA thoughtfully provides, The Christian Century notes (in their Dec. 26, 2006 print edition; I can't find the article online) that Madeleine Kunin was sworn in as governor of Vermont in 1985 using a book of Jewish prayers; and Debbie Wasserman (D- N.Y.) also used the Tanakh for her oath in 2005.
They also report that President John Quincy Adams used a law book when took the oath of office in 1825. No religious text at all-- and he still managed to muddle through.
Post a Comment
<< Home