"I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Kentucky so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of ——————— according to law; and I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that since the adoption of the present Constitution, I, being a citizen of this State, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus offending, so help me God."
All elected officials have to take similar oaths. Their job is to uphold the laws of our nation. That means that public officials must put aside their personal beliefs and opinions, and carry out their duties with impartiality. This being a free country, we all have a choice of profession. Those not willing to serve the entire public with impartiality are free to choose work other than public service.
Our government was designed to be secular, and it must be so. We are too big, and too diverse, for it to be otherwise. This nation, like it or not, is full of different religions. None want to live under the rules of another, not even within a "genre", so to speak. For example, Catholics differ from Baptists, who differ from Presbyterians. In the Pagan world, Heathens differ from Wiccans, who differ from Eclectics. How can we ensure that the religious freedom of all is preserved? By the rule of secular law.
But let's talk about religious freedom for a moment. What is it? The first amendment to the US Constitution says:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.[1]"
What this means is that each citizen is free to practice the religion of their choice, or no religion. Notice what is NOT guaranteed? Your "right" to change the laws of the nation to suit your beliefs while acting as a representative of our government. Your "right" to force others to live by the rules of your religion. No one has those "rights". We must all live under the same secular laws.
As I've discussed in previous activism-themed posts, freedom is simple. Freedom means you can do whatever you like, so long as you do not harm or infringe upon the rights of others. So, religious freedom is the right to practice or not practice a faith or your choice. It does not include forcing others to practice that faith, or forcing them to live by its rules.
The reality is that the majority religion of the United States has enjoyed a position of unfair privilege for many years. The fact that this story from Kentucky is newsworthy shows that we are beginning to make progress, but still have much work to do. Take this very oath, for example. It ends with "so help me God". Which god? A secular government does not take oaths to a deity. I saw it suggested recently that we ought to swear our oaths on our Constitution. This makes a great deal of sense. It is the foundational document of this nation.
These references to God were inserted into our government in the 1950's. The country was going through a dark period. The Cold War was at its height, and people were paranoid about Communism. Neighbors were turning in neighbors for the slightest whiff of disloyalty or deviant behavior. It was, in short, a national witch hunt in which many innocent people were harmed by malicious gossip. Naturally, our fear was exploited to add "under God" to our Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" to our currency (and also our national motto). This law was not Constitutional. It clearly violates the First Amendment. It should be repealed.
But there's more - what about national holidays? Most of them are secular in nature - we honor our veterans, the labor rights movement, the civil rights movement, our birth as a nation and so on. But there is also Christmas. While it's true that many faiths celebrate a holiday at that time of year, only one religion has a national holiday. This should not be. I don't have the answer on this - what's the fair way to handle winter holidays? I suspect the answer is that religious holidays should not be federal or national holidays.
While employers are not required to give employees national holidays off, many do, at least four of them. Usually, a company gives Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day and Christmas Day as holidays. Three are secular, which is great. One is not. What about all the non-Christians? Why should everyone else have to take personal time or go without pay to celebrate their personal religious holidays? Why should one religion enjoy a privileged position over the rest?
Personally, I'd love to have the Sabbats off from work. Generally, I do try to take them off. Paying for that, of course, is my own affair. In my industry, I don't get paid time off anyway. I wish I could take Full Moons off as well, but even a priestess has to pay bills. We also have a goodly number of holidays in our faith. If I took Sabbats and Full Moons off, that would be around 21 days a year. Of course, in any given year, at least a few of those would fall on a weekend. Still, it's a significant amount of time. Even if I had paid time off, it would likely be more than my allotted amount, and that's not counting any vacations! Balancing obligations with spiritual life...a topic for another post.
But back to the point. This nation was founded with a secular government. Influences of the majority religion have crept in. As part of our ongoing cultural war, extremists are trying to polarize public opinion in a bid to create some sort of theocracy. The idea of that is absurd - even if Christianity became our state religion, which would be terrible news for everyone else, it wouldn't lessen controversy among Christians. In this country, we have hundreds of Christian denominations. What version would be our state religion? How would it be chosen? Ironically, these same extremists decry their Islamic counterparts and their bid for sharia law. Same story, different characters.
As members of a tiny minority religion, Pagans need to advocate for our secular government, but really, it's the responsibility of all thinking persons in this country. A friend told me recently that "good secular fences make good religious neighbors". Blessed be to that. Everyone of every faith, as well as agnostics and atheists should be equally represented and served by our government and its representatives. Until the day comes that people willingly tolerate and respect those different than themselves, we need laws to protect us. We need to do more than pray for peace and harmony. We need to lobby for it, petition for it, and vote for it with wallets and ballots.
Know any good organizations working toward this goal? Comment or email me!
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