It is time to end the nonsense of presidents swearing "oaths" on the Bible, Koran, Tanak, Gita or Bugs Bunny Comic Book and put the presidential-elect hand on the US Constitution and Bill of Rights which theoretically the president elect is swearing to uphold.

The Presidential oath of office is described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution:

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

"Nothing in this section requires that the oath of office be taken on the Bible. Neither do the words "so help me God" appear in the oath. While Presidents often include this phrase in their inauguration ceremonies, the words are customary; they are not required by the Constitution and have no legal significance.

If the framers wanted Presidents to invoke God when taking the oath of office they could have worded the oath to accomplish that objective. Instead, the constitutional oath of office contains no reference to God, need not be administered on the Bible, and need not even be considered an oath. Contrary to the accommodationist argument, Article II, section 1 is evidence that the framers intended the federal government to be secular in its operation.

Oaths of office for other federal and state officials are described in Article VI of the Constitution:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

The above in quotation marks is taken from SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE HOME PAGE

Besides, in these times that consider religion "superstition" it belittles the Church to allow the use of it's holy scriptures as a prop for any saecular power!

The "founding fathers," and all lawy;ers, and school teachers and clergy, had all taken "oaths" and sworn before the Christian God to keep and defend the government of which they were participants. Such "Patriots" had no problem breaking those oaths and later used force, or fear to require others to break theirs as well.And then, rather than being honest that oaths were merely theater, they begin to require new oaths to be sworn to do things their way. See the oath to the left.




Oaths are a joke in the United States today. You can see the Presidential Oath signed (already) by presumptive "President" John McCain by clicking the accompanying photo! In the First (1768) edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, "Oath" took up eight pages! Today at Britannica Online it is 528 words! I don't expect honesty from politicians, but I do expect that they they at least keep up the theater with some sort of "factual" consistency.

Let's demand an end to such bull.

O, want to buy one with five presidential signatures? Here's one here:















Oh, and for the record, here's Mugabe swearing his Presidential Oath on the Bible.