Traditionally an oath is either a statement of fact or a
promise with wording relating to something considered sacred as a sign of
verity.
In law, oaths are made by a witness to a court of law before
giving testimony. Willfully delivering a false oath is the crime of perjury.
In addition to holding ones hand upon an object of
ceremonial importance (usually the Bible), it is customary for a person
swearing an oath to hold the raised right hand in a
specific gesture, a custom referred
to in the Old Testament ("Their mouths speak untruth; their right hands
are raised in lying oaths", Psalm 144:8).
A few weeks ago, I had to give a deposition in a legal
proceeding involving my former employer.
When sworn in, I was asked to raise my right hand, but was
given no Bible, nor did the oath end with the usual “so help you God”
language.
When you do not swear on anything, what is the point?
Isn’t
it just as illegal to lie to an officer of the law whether or not you raise
your right hand and say you won’t lie?
What if I raised my right hand but crossed the fingers on my
left hand?
Would that be a loophole?
How about if we implement a pinky swear process instead of the whole "raise your right hand" practice?
Wouldn't that be more binding?
While I find George Carlin's skit below amusing, the reality of our society moving away from Christian values is a little alarming.
In eradicating God from our society, we have cheapened many things.
The whole point of an oath is that in a God-fearing society, by swearing on God to tel the truth, you risk some good old-fashioned Old Testament wrath if you fib.
Fire and brimstone. Pillars of salt. Floods. Famine.
And from a logical standpoint, the whole oath process is, as George described, meaningless.
Certainly it is without God in the equation.
Absent God, what is right or wrong?
Why not lie if it suits you?
Yet the custom of swearing in is still here, a practice that dates back to the Old Testament, albiet modified in our senseless pursuit of "separation of church and state."
As with many things, those who claim to not believe seem to always hedge their bets.
Recently I had to fill out an Oath of Fiduciary Responsibility in order to take charge of my hospitalized brother's financial affairs in the state of Tennessee. They emailed me the form and I signed and sent it back.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that on the form the oath was printed normally and then in giant font at the end it said "So Help you God". It was like they were trying to make a special point of the God factor which was kind of cool.
Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Road trippin' with A to Z
Tossing It Out
When you have those forms that have you sign certifying that the above information is true, it always amuses me. I think the truth is implied, so those statements are silly.
DeleteAdding the "so help you God" language, to me, drives home the message that this is serious.
Absent that, who knows.
I certify that the above words are my thoughts.
I think we're talking about motivation to tell the truth. The reason the Holy Bible is/was used for oaths was to motivate people to be honest. Of course, by taking the language of God out of the equation and still using the Bible doesn't make much sense. I would think it's also not very compelling for someone who's never read the Bible.
ReplyDeleteWhy not lie if it suits you?
Well, I think we're seeing that it suits plenty of people just fine. Just look at the Federal Government...
It just struck me as odd that without the Bible and the language, what's the point? Isn't it implied that you'll tell the truth? Or is it ok to lie unless you first promise to tell the truth?
DeleteNow we're getting into how someone raises their kid. If they raise them to be honest, most likely they will be. If they lie themselves, then that is the lesson they pass on to their kids. Of course, making it more troublesome, are the people like my ex-husband who see the truth as a fluid thing. It changes constantly. He had real trouble grabbing hold of it.
DeleteAh, but did he ever raise his right hand and promise to tell you the truth? I smell a loophole....
DeleteYou have just struck upon the glue that holds our political system together- not the "so help me God," but the "what does it really matter?" Everyone demands the truth from the next guy, but doesn't care to hear it for themselves. Let the "other guy" figure it out, just put it on CBS This Morning and I'll believe it.
ReplyDeleteAre you implying that the news media is lying to me?
DeleteI'll be back. Right now, I've got some ROCKY & BULLWINKLE to watch, and those episodes contain more truth than you'll find in "the whole united states of Georgia!"
ReplyDeleteSeveral good points made in this blog bit comment section already, but a special nod to WC Martin for his remark: "Everyone demands the truth from the next guy, but doesn't care to hear it for themselves."
There's a lot of truth in that... although that sentence could be interpreted in a couple different ways. And I interpret it the... "other"... way.
~ D-FensDogG
'Loyal American Underground'
I assumed he meant "from themselves," and, yep, he's right.
DeleteWhat I meant was, You have a lot of people out there, unfortunately many of them registered to vote, who will demand the "truth" from the opposite side of their political spectrum, and do nothing to vette the veracity of their side's claim. Nothing more, nothing less. Hope I didn't disappoint the dyslexic too bad.
DeleteMaybe.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm thinking mo' along the lines of a "Freudian slip".
~ D-FensDogG
Ah, makes sense now. Got it.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the gradual doing away with The Bible in government, the removing of The Ten Commandments from Uncle Scam's property, all of this is meant to drag society down by taking God out of the public consciousness.
Drag it down to what? Drag it down to the New World Order agenda, which is simply a code expression for the anti-Christ's official ruling, which is coming sooner than later.
I'll add that when I was young, I thought George Carlin was hysterically funny - one of the best comedians out there. And although some of what he says does still mildly amuse me (and some of it was true, like cops committing perjury when it suits the state's case), I came to realize as I got older that George Carlin was really quite an idiot.
Here he is spouting off a bunch of bozo crap about things he obviously knows nuttin' about, and the damn fool audience is laughing it's head off because they ain't any more educated than Carlin is.
The Bible is just a bunch of made up hooey, eh? And he'll tell us "about as much truth as the people who wrote that fuckin' Bible", huh? Spoken like a person who doesn't know the first thing about that Book, who's never spent even a day studying it.
I would have LOVED to have gotten George Carlin in a nationally televised debate about The Bible. He wouldn't be laughing and winking when it was over, I can tell you that much.
~ D-FensDogG