Oaths – right, wrong, or indifferent?

With all the events that surrounded the Presidential Inauguration, such as the prayers that were given, the chanting of “Obama, Obama…” during prayer, etc. the one that seems to be getting the most attention is the taking of the oath of office. Or should I say the re-taking of the oath of office? So I wanted to stir the conspiracy fires a bit and post a rant.

Why is it that our Congressmen, Presidents, etc, swear on the Bible as a part of taking office?

Each president recites the following oath, in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:

“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.” Nowhere in the text of the Constitution is there any requirement to use a Bible in the oath. 

It is common to swear by something that is regarded as holy by the oath-giver. Breaking the oath is equivalent to renouncing belief in that object and that which it represents. Since Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God, it is considered an appropriately holy thing to swear by. At the time that the United States was founded, most of its citizens were Christians, and most, if not all, of the Presidents, Senators and Representatives in Congress were Christians. That is, almost everyone in the nation believed that the Bible was a holy object. Such, unfortunately,  is no longer the case.

While there will be a lot of discussion about the taking of oaths based on the Bible, which we’ll discuss a little in a moment, it is my opinion that one must have some binding belief in a Deity, or the oath would not….well be binding. So my little rant here is people were upset that the words of the oath were out of order, due to the stumbling of first President Obama, then Chief Justice Roberts, so a second oath was given to correct the wording mistakes – Except this time President Obama’s hand was not on the Bible. Does that make this oath any more or less binding or important? 

I have listed some information I used to come up with my opinion (and small conspiracy theory) maybe, if you care to, you can use it to decide. LOL Have fun.

Now, we’ll discuss a bit what the Bible says about oaths. Using my handy Bible on my Mac, I showed 286 occurrences of the word oath. I will not recite all of them here, but give a few that I felt got down to the heart of it.

Hebrews 6:13 For when God made his oath to Abraham, because there was no greater oath, he made it by himself, (BBE)

Hebrews 6:16 For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Hebrews 7:28 For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

James 5:12 But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes,” and your “no,” “no;” so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.

Revelation 10:6 And took his oath by him who is living for ever and ever, who made the heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there would be no more waiting:

Genesis 24:7 The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and made an oath to me, saying, To your seed I will give this land: he will send his angel before you and give you a wife for my son in that land.

Numbers 30:2 

If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

The list goes on, but we’ll break down one that seemed to come up a lot in my short research.

Jesus confronts this in Matthew 23:16-22: “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.’ You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’ You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering? Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”

In reading Matthew, I feel we are being told to speak the truth at all times. Neither Jesus nor James were prohibiting all oaths. James is talking about not invoking God’s name in everyday speech to assure the truthfulness of what you say. If someone often says, “I swear to God that’s true,” you begin to wonder whether anything he says is true. Your word should be true without needing to make a big deal about it.

Deuteronomy 10:20 commands God’s people to swear by His name. In Jeremiah 12:16, God says of even the pagan nations, “Then if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people.”

In the New Testament, the only time that Jesus spoke in His trial before the Council was when the high priest said to Him (Matt. 26:63), “I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.” So Jesus answered under oath. The apostle Paul often swore by the Lord when he said, “God is my witness” (Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:23; Phil. 1:8; 1 Thess. 2:5, 10; see also Gal. 1:20).

So, I feel the Bible does not prohibit all oaths. Rather, it forbids both frivolous oaths and false oaths. Frivolous oaths are those that are so commonplace that they lose all significance or meaning. This would include taking an oath when it is not necessary or proper. It is better not to make a vow than to make it and not keep it (Eccl. 5:5).

The other kind of oath that the Bible forbids is the false oath. A false oath is one that the person making it does not intend to keep, but he makes it either to impress or deceive others. Jesus and James were directing these commands toward these kinds of oaths.

I found this somewhere on the net, and forgot the source, but found it to lean to my belief:

“In commenting on Matthew 5:33-37, Haddon Robinson (The Christian Salt & Light Company [Discovery House Publishing], p. 156) says with regard to the Sermon on the Mount, “If anger was the real issue of murder, lust the real issue of adultery, selfishness the real issue of divorce, then deceit is the real issue of oaths.” He adds (p. 158), “Jesus wasn’t addressing whether or not we should take an oath. He was talking about whether or not we are truthful. We don’t tell the truth because we have taken an oath; we tell the truth because we are truthful.”

Hmmmm…got me thinking a little more about oaths.

As a Freemason, I am sure you have heard about our supposal oath taking…. so I thought I would talk a little about that as well.  When a candidate is initiated into Freemasonry he takes what is termed an obligation, not an oath. We never use the word oath when being initated. The difference is not a matter of idle semantics but is very real. The candidate asks God to support him, he does not swear by God or call on God as his witness. He is humbly asking God for help, not claiming God is his guarantor. This is a prayer of supplication, not a self-serving oath. We simply take the obligation and then close most by stating something like “So help me God, and keep me steadfast.”

I also found this defining statement on the net, again I did not note the source…so my instructors would give me an F, but it is my blog….not a research paper. LOL

“Oaths, like promises, are performative utterances. But oaths are generally characterized by their greater moral weight compared with promises, their public character, their validation by transcendent appeal, the involvement of the personhood of the swearer, the prescription of consequences for failure to uphold their contents, the generality of the scope of their contents, the prolonged time frame of the commitment, the fact that their moral force remains binding in spite of failures on the part of those to whom the swearer makes the commitment, and the fact that interpersonal fidelity is the moral hallmark of the commitment of the swearer. Oaths are also distinct from codes. Codes are collections of specific moral rules. Codes are not performative utterances. They do not commit future intentions and do not involve the personhood of the one enjoined by the code. ”

Wikioedia (which rocks!) has some really great information on the Oath of Office of the President of the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_office_of_the_President_of_the_United_States

So, does the oath bind our new President?

Does it matter that we use the Bible?

Is it wrong to take an oath?

When will they update all the operating systems on computers to not label Obama as an unrecognized word or name? LOL