IF I HAD TO TESTIFY TO CONGRESS, WOULD I HAVE TO LIE?

We watched the entire Michael Cohen Congressional committee hearing. Yeah, I know, nice to have that kind of time. There is one thing that has nagged at me for many years, and this came up again for me right at the beginning.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god?” There it was, the swearing in. This is the conundrum.

I have imagined myself in this situation many times. I was once hired as an expert witness in an environmental court case; fortunately, I was never called to the court and dodged the conundrum. 

If I were to be sworn in, and the “Do you swear...?” Question put to me, my answer would have to be “No!”  If I answered “Yes,” I would be committing perjury, because “yes” would be a lie. I am an atheist; I cannot “swear to god” because there is no such thing as god to swear an oath to. I wonder how this response would be handled. 

Maybe the Congress and the courts have a god-less swearing in for folks like me. That would be good. But this all begs a different question: what ever happened to separation of church and state established by our Constitution? I actually know the answer to this question, it has been usurped by over-zealous Christians who lobbied Congress to add these kinds of god statements to various things, including our Pledge of Allegiance (“one nation under God” was not in the original pledge), our money (“in God we trust” was not originally on our money), and so on. 

(audible sigh) It is what it is. Nothing I can do about. And no, I am not a soldier in the War on Christmas!!

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