Sacredness of an Oath (cont.)

There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon, I Nephi 4:35, 37, which says that as soon as Zoram "made an oath unto us that he would tarry with us from that time forth. Our fears did cease concerning him." Although those of us in the western world may be astonished at this confidence in Zoram's words, it becomes less astonishing when we realize that an oath is the one thing that is most sacred and inviolable among the desert people.

Hugh B. Nibley in his book An Approach to the Book of Mormon says, "Hardly will an Arab break his oath, even if his life is in jeopardy, " for, "there is nothing stronger and nothing more sacred than the oath among the nomads." (p. 110)

George Lamsa in his book Old Testament Light tells us that when easterners take an oath they lift their hands toward heaven and invoke the name of God as a faithful witness. He adds that when treaties and agreements were made in the name of God they were generally respected and kept by future generations. (p. 44)

Even in the western world a man's word used to mean more than it does today. Yet, still today someone who does what he or she says he/she will do is known as a person of integrity --a man (or woman) of his word. That characterization of someone still carries a lot of weight.

I have a quote in my book My Years As a Hispanic Youth Advocate...and The Lessons I Learned that I believe was originally written as a joke and yet, it has a very important message. It says that it may feel like the judge who said in his acceptance speech, "I wish to thank the 424 people who promised to vote for me. I wish to thank the 316 people who said they did vote for me. I wish to thank the 47 people who came out last Thursday to vote, and I wish to thank the 26 folks who actually did vote for me." (p. 302)

Sacredness of an Oath

Last Thursday in my BYU doctoral law class our professor, Dr. Scott Ferrin, show us a video about the Supreme Court. Even though I had always known that government officials were sworn in to office and that they usually had a hand on the Bible when doing so, the Bible hadn't really caught my attention with any great interest until seeing this video. I started to wonder when and how that tradition came to be so I did some researching and discovered all kinds of interesting tidbits that I had previously just taken for granted.

The oath or affirmation of office of the President of the United States was established in the United States Constitution and it's mandatory for a President upon beginning a term. The wording:

I 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 Abiilty, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States
is prescribed by the Constitution (Article II, Section I, Clause 8).

Although it not present in the text of the Constitution, it has become standard practice for modern presidents to add "so help me God" at the end of the oath. Also, by way of convention, most raise their right hand and hold the other on a Bible (or other book of their choosing) while taking the oath although neither of these is required by law.

An oath is either a promise or a statement of fact calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred as a witness to the binding nature of the promise. To swear is take an oath. Many people take an oath by holding in their hand or placing over their head a book of scripture or a sacred object, thus indicating the sacred nature of the oath. The earliest English settleers in America brought over the tradition of this witness oath.