Swearing on the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At CNN.com Dean Obeidallah contends the "swearing" by the President ought to be over the Constitution, not the Bible. Why do you think the President\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2013\/01\/21\/swearing-on-the-bible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swearing on the Bible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At CNN.com Dean Obeidallah contends the "swearing" by the President ought to be over the Constitution, not the Bible. 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{"id":36730,"date":"2013-01-21T10:02:52","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=36730"},"modified":"2013-01-21T10:30:48","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:30:48","slug":"swearing-on-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2013\/01\/21\/swearing-on-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Swearing on the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

At CNN.com Dean Obeidallah<\/strong><\/a> contends the \u201cswearing\u201d by the President ought to be over the Constitution, not the Bible.<\/p>\n

Why do you think the President swears on the Bible? Do you think he (or should it be a she) should?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(CNN)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 U.S. presidents should not be sworn into office with their hand on a Bible.<\/p>\n
At Monday\u2019s inauguration of his second term, President Barack Obama will raise his right hand and place his left on not one, but two Bibles<\/a>: One owned by Abraham Lincoln and the other by Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n
The Constitution requires he give this oath of office: \u201cI 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.\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n
The Constitution does not require that the president take the oath of office by swearing on a Bible. That would have been a very simple requirement for the constitutional drafters to include. To the contrary, the Founders wanted to ensure that Americans of any faith \u2014 or no faith \u2014 could hold federal office.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At CNN.com Dean Obeidallah contends the \u201cswearing\u201d by the President ought to be over the Constitution, not the Bible. Why do you think the President swears on the Bible? Do you think he (or should it be a she) should? (CNN)\u00a0\u2014 U.S. presidents should not be sworn into office with their hand on a Bible. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSwearing on the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At CNN.com Dean Obeidallah contends the "swearing" by the President ought to be over the Constitution, not the Bible. Why do you think the President\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2013\/01\/21\/swearing-on-the-bible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swearing on the Bible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At CNN.com Dean Obeidallah contends the "swearing" by the President ought to be over the Constitution, not the Bible. 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