In Guilford County, North Carolina, a few minutes away from where I live, judges have decided that they will not allow witnesses to take an oath on the Koran, but rather will allow only the Bible as a religious document for oath-taking.
From CNS News: “An oath of the Koran is not a lawful oath under our law,” said W. Douglas Albright, Guilford’s senior resident Superior Court judge. According to state law, swearing an oath constitutes putting one’s hand on the “Holy Scriptures.”
This is the sort of thing that happens when various organs of the state integrate religious belief into their practices. Albright and the other judges of the Guilford County Superior Court decide that the phrase “Holy Scriptures” only applies to the scriptures of one religion, Christianity. Dominant religions gain advantage. Visit a conservative forum to see just how much of a good idea the right-wing fundamentalists think this is. See, they don’t want the state to incorporate all religions, just their own.
In public, the politicians protest loudly that when the wall separating Church and State is knocked down, every religion and non-religion will have equal footing. In practice, one of two things will happen. (1) Christianity will be given privilege, and other religions will be pushed aside, or (2) Government’s new job will be to serve as a paid megaphone for the hundreds of religions out there. You can bet your boots that if taxpayer funds are allowed to promote religion, the Wiccans and Satanists and Muslims and Zoroasterians etc. will be filing suit to have their texts and prayers read in your local public school. Then the fundamentalists will howl even louder then they’re howling now that such inclusion of “not real” religion is a hideous idea. They’ll demand that a wall separating Wicca and Satanism and Islam and Buddhism and Animism from state be maintained, and that just Christianity should be let in. If they win, they’ll have their theocracy.
A perfect example of why every tiny infiltration of christianity into government must be resisted with ferocity. Thanks Irregular Times. I myself have been asked in a zoning hearing to swear an oath to “the Holy Creator who Guides and designs all things” or some such crap. I stated I could not swear such an oath, and was told I only needed to affirm that I would tell the truth. Yet I doubt my objection was noted in the record, and so it probably reflects that I swore such a silly oath.
I go to school in Alamance county and I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised by the actions of Guilford county’s court. It really has little to do with it being Guilford and more to do with the mentality of a large part of the power-welding segments of the state. Having grown up in NC and now going to college there, I’m becoming increasingly concerned by the even more conservative angle which the state is leaning towards.
This tyranny is why the Constitution says (in Article VI):
No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
This tyranny is why the First Amendment warns against an establishment of religion.
This tyranny is why our Revolution was fought in the first place.
As an athiest, what text shall I paw whilst swearing to tell the truth? Carl Sagan’s Cosmos perhaps? All that should be required is a simple yes or no answer.
If you’re in court you’re supposed to tell the truth, keeping your fingers crossed doesn’t change it.
The fuss about oaths and texts is pretty silly really. They should be briefed on the conditions and that’s all they should need.