Would an atheist police officer with a shred of integrity even take such an oath if those specific words were required to be spoken?

But in my own personal experience, police officers and integrity are not exactly synonymous.

Of course, if he said “I don’t care if the person is a Jew…” his titles would likely have been stripped before you finished the article

As an atheist who grew up in Marietta and still lives in Cobb, I wouldn’t be too sure about the speed of said stripping. Don’t forget these are some of the same idiots who wanted to keep the stickers on the science books.

Shortly after I sworn in four other officials. I combined both versions keeping the two religious portions, anding with them the two godless portions.

I’m glad I did both things. Yet, I will always wonder if the two people who know which oath I took will hold me in a higher or lower light. If one of them will use that information in some way with an intent to reduce my reputation. Being in integrity and the potential upsides are worth it to me. But clearly there are reasons for people to be concerned with outing themselves.

Should I trust a godless person who takes the godfull oath? Better to do both together.

It seems that future lawsuit might be successful-if a person is otherwise fully-qualified to a police officer (we would know if that was true by the swearing-in), this would appear to be a violation of the free-excercise clause of the 1st amendment (person not being hired directly based on a religious belief or lack thereof).

When I asked around later on as an adult, I found that this mindset wasn’t entirely uncommon; many Christians consider ‘swearing to God’ as being somehow akin to taking the lord’s name in vain.

In light of this, taking ‘so help me God’ out of the oath wouldn’t just be a token gesture to us non-religious (as well as being the correct observance of separation of Church and State), there are plenty of religious people who would be relieved by the change as well.

Is the Oath given to a Group, like it is when I was at Jury Duty, or individually? It’s tough to stand out in a group, for such a small thing. Some cops might see it as minor, and meaningless.

It’s a bad sign that they opted to stick with the problematic exclusivity and make others do the difficult job of forcing a change later on.

Some instances of god-mentioning in oaths are the result of well-meaning ignorance, but in this case, the people involved are well aware that they’re being exclusive (illegally, at that) and are giving a big, “screw you” to the non-religious.

Fully agree on the ‘Christian Nation’ crap, I bristle every time I hear it.