When Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) was sworn in, she raised her right hand and placed her left on a copy of the US Constitution. As an openly non-religious person and as a federal law maker that is far more fitting than a religious text as is the current American custom. However, it’s interesting to see the evolution of that tradition.

In medieval times, when swearing an oath one would place a hand on a relic, tying their salvation and the saint represented by the relic to the testimony to be given or the office to be held. Then the Protestant Reformation came along and the saints were demoted from demigods to role models and relics were discarded (except for in the Catholic church). The relics were then replaced with what Protestants hold most dear, the Bible. Then in the last session or two a Muslim congressman was sworn in placing his hand on the Qu’ran, what’s most dear to him. Now we have Sinema with the Constitution.

It is certainly comforting to see that there is at least one person in congress who holds the US Constitution, the supreme law of the land, most dear, but the tradition has definitely been divorced of any meaning it may have once had and has become nothing more than a purely symbolic gesture of ones priorities.

Of course, if anyone should be against this tradition it’s Christians:

But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. (Matthew 5:34-37 ESV)

If you see anyone calling her out for not swearing on the Bible, just use that text on them. Why argue with them when they can’t even live by their own standard.

(Via Friend Atheist)