> -----Original Message----- > From: Rick Root [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 7:40 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Not all tradition is a good idea > > A bill is coming up in the north carolina general assembly that would > allow > people in north carolina courts to swear oaths by "the bible or any other > text sacred to that person's religious faith"
I'm surprised (and honestly disgusted) that this requires a law to change - I wasn't aware that it was law in any state that bible must be used. The act of "Swearing on a Bible" isn't stipulated in any official materials that I know of. It was a tradition passed to us from England but isn't required in any affirmations that I know (rather knew) of. The constitution, for example, has this to say: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all the 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." Some oaths (to me at least, annoyingly) do mention God, but not many. The army oath of enlistment does, but that part can be omitted by request. By the same token I thought that all US courts make the oath on a bible optional - used by tradition but nothing else. (Actually from what I've gathering this IS true in North Carolina as well. It seems it was county officials that took it upon themselves to make claims about the legality of not-swearing on the bible which are contradicted by state laws.) The only issue I really have with the clarification in question is that it apparently ignores the fact that over 12% of Americans are non-religious (atheist, agnostic or secular). Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http:http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:227340 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
