Moore Spox Falls Silent When Told Bible Isn't Required For Oaths Of Office

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo




By ESME CRIBB Published DECEMBER 12, 2017 6:10 PM

A spokesman for Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore’s campaign on Tuesday appeared dumbfounded when asked whether he knew that there is no legal requirement for elected officials to be sworn in using a Christian bible.

“Judge Moore has also said that he doesn’t think a Muslim member of Congress should be allowed to be in Congress. Why? Under what provision of the Constitution?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Moore spokesman Ted Crockett.

Moore in 2006 said that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to Congress, should not be sworn in because Moore claimed the Quran was not compatible with the Constitution.

“Because you have to swear on the Bible,” Crockett responded. “You have to swear on a Bible to be an elected official in the United States of America. He alleges that a Muslim cannot do that ethically, swearing on the Bible.”

-snip-

Link to tweet

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/moore-campaign-spokesman-silent-when-told-bible-not-necessary-for-swearing-in

[Xipe Totec]

1. If I ever get elected to office, I want to be sworn in on Darwin's Origin of Species nt

[PJMcK]

2. I like that idea

Or how about David Attenborough's "Life On Earth"?

Actually, how about no book at all? The Oath of Office itself should have enough meaning and commitment that it doesn't need any backstopping other than the Constitution.

[Roy Rolling]

19. If There Was a Thought Bubble

If we could read his thoughts it would be "No Bible requirement! There will be if Moore is elected".

[MurrayDelph]

23. I want to be sworn in on Amazing Fantasy 15

the origin of Spider-Man, which ends with the moral "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility."

[JHB]

33. Carl Sagans A Demon Haunted World

It’s the right book for the times we are in

[Thor_MN]

3. Dumbass doesn't know that my Rep was sworn in with Jefferson's Quran.

He is an idiot, like Moore.

[irisblue]

4. I'd want a copy of the Declaration of Independence & the Constution.

[murielm99]

22. Good choice.

The best choice.

[-_O_-]

5. Duuuuuurrrrrrr.

[link:|

[marble falls]

6. Pricelessssssss. Truly choice.

[SnowCritter]

7. I seriously doubt whether they've really read the Bible

Matthew 5:33-37 says: 33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

But then they're Christians in name only (CINO) and really don't know much about what's in the Bible at all.

[FakeNoose]

10. Yes and don't forget the part that says

... "Thou shalt not bear false witness."

That's the one they always get stuck on.

[Salviati]

11. Or the constitution for that matter.

It's not even in one of the Amendments he wants to get rid of, but in the body of the Constitution itself:


Article VI, Section 3:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

[HopeAgain]

26. They thump it, they don't read it.

there's a difference.

[treestar]

30. That is amazing

Up until recently, people have been using the Bible in court to swear on.

In Delaware, I have seen in within the last 20 years.

Didn't previous generation Christians know these verses?

[rsdsharp]

31. In thirty years of practice in Iowa

I have never seen a bible used in court during the administration of the oath. In fact, I have only heard "So help you God," once, and that was when the oath was administered to a member of Operation Rescue during a contempt hearing.

In a case in which we had a rabbi as a witness he was very concerned over whether he would be asked to swear an oath. The oath is actually "Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." He answered "I so affirm."

[SummerSnow]

8. Book to be sworn in..All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten -Robert Fulghum

[jmowreader]

9. I wonder if he knows congressmen aren't sworn in on ANY book

This is the oath ceremony for the Senate in the 113th Congress, which was from 2013 to 2015.

Please note that their right hands are raised and their left hands are at their sides.

The ceremony where they put their left hand on the Bible isn't the official ceremony; it is a photo op for their constituents.

[Solly Mack]

12. So sure in his ignorance. So matter-of-fact in his belief and so wrong in his facts.

The poster boy for all his ilk.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. Swamp Thing!

hope he doesn't win

[dchill]

14. For me, it'd be Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye."

[ChubbyStar]

16. Good choice my dear

Chandler was, and always will be a genius to me.

[dchill]

17. Yes. I just finished "The Big Sleep" - which I've already read...

three or four times. I'm not a snob, though - I also love Hammett and MacDonald.

[oasis]

15. Expected ignorance from an associate of Moore. nt

[paleotn]

18. I could be sworn in on freaking Moby Dick if I wanted, you freaking moron!

What stupidity!!!!!!!

[left-of-center2012]

20. Same in court, swearing "to tell the truth"

You don't have to swear "so help me God".

You just have to 'affirm' or 'swear' to tell the truth.

Being Buddhist, it would do no good for me to swear "so help me God".

My Persian friend is a member of the Zoroastrian religion.
Would he swear "so help me Zoroaster"?

[jb5150]

21. I'd go for God Is Not Great

by Christopher Hitchens

[Egnever]

24. That was awesome.

Really love the dismissal at the end.

[Cold War Spook]

25. Jephthah

Judges 11, why you should not take an oath to God.

[Siwsan]

27. That video ended with a truly a brilliant demonstration of the term 'Slack Jaw'

[Guilded Lilly]

28. Hullo? Hullo? ...are you there???.....Duhhhhh.

[underpants]

29. Hilarious.

By convention, incoming presidents raise their right hand and place the left on a Bible or other book while taking the oath of office. In 1789, George Washington took the oath of office with an altar Bible borrowed from the St. John's Lodge No. 1, Ancient York Masons lodge in New York, and he kissed the Bible afterward.[17][18] Subsequent presidents up to and including Harry Truman, followed suit.[19] Dwight Eisenhower broke that tradition in 1953 when he said a prayer instead of kissing the Bible.[20]

Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible when taking the oath in 1901.[21] Both John Quincy Adams and Franklin Pierce [22] swore on a book of law, with the intention that they were swearing on the constitution.[23] Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on a Roman Catholic missal on Air Force One.[24] Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump each swore the oath on two Bibles.[21]

[onenote]

32. the only thing that would have made it better is if a fly had flown into his gaping mouth

while he sat there looking stupid.