Good article...really good article. I remember when that came up, and have been looking to see how it got resolved by North Carolina.
NC's state constitution and it's religious oath requirement put me on a quest once, with regards to belief in God and holding public office. Of course, the U.S. Constitution's ban on religious tests trumped all of the state constitutions I researched, but it was interesting to see how many of them had it (and enforced it, until the late '60's when the issue was brought to SCOTUS).
Denying a Muslim the right to swear in on the Quran really surprised me, I'll admit. I know how the religious right views these things, but I thought better of judges...maybe I'm an optimist, but it seemed so common sense to me to simply allow her to swear in on her "Holy Scripture".
When I posted about this originally, I threw out the idea that maybe we should just go to universal affirmations, without use of any holy book. What's your take on that idea?
Universal affirmations is preferable to what is happening in North Carolina.
Regarding judges, most of them are elected. The Radical Religious Right has been very concerned about electing judges that will rule according to "biblical law." Common sense is nonsense to a lot of judges today.
2 comments:
Good article...really good article. I remember when that came up, and have been looking to see how it got resolved by North Carolina.
NC's state constitution and it's religious oath requirement put me on a quest once, with regards to belief in God and holding public office. Of course, the U.S. Constitution's ban on religious tests trumped all of the state constitutions I researched, but it was interesting to see how many of them had it (and enforced it, until the late '60's when the issue was brought to SCOTUS).
Denying a Muslim the right to swear in on the Quran really surprised me, I'll admit. I know how the religious right views these things, but I thought better of judges...maybe I'm an optimist, but it seemed so common sense to me to simply allow her to swear in on her "Holy Scripture".
When I posted about this originally, I threw out the idea that maybe we should just go to universal affirmations, without use of any holy book. What's your take on that idea?
Rob,
Universal affirmations is preferable to what is happening in North Carolina.
Regarding judges, most of them are elected. The Radical Religious Right has been very concerned about electing judges that will rule according to "biblical law." Common sense is nonsense to a lot of judges today.
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