Swearing Research Paper

Stepping Out in Faith In the United States, it has always been customary that people in court, presidents, as well as other officials would have to swear on a bible. When taking an oath, people usually raise their right hand, and place their left hand on a bible (whether or not the person is Christian). It makes sense that this practice of swearing on the bible started because the founders were mostly Protestants, Roman Catholics or some form of Christian. But now, as the religion demographic is changing, the act of swearing on a bible is becoming more traditional rather than religious. The change from being religious to being more traditional reflects the change in our ideologies. No longer are we fixated on the physical Bible itself
Recently, people have been taking oaths on things that have meaning to them rather than just swearing on something that they don't relate to. There have been instances for example, a muslim congressman who wanted to swear on the Qur'an and a Jewish man who wanted to swear on the Torah, which shows that swearing on something has become more than just religious or tradition. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a congressman, made history in that he became the first Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Congress and the first to swear on the Qur’an rather than the bible (First Muslim Congressman to Swear Oath on Koran). The fact that these people are choosing to swear on another widely known and accepted religious text shows that people are becoming more religious. Since the nation is not and has not always been 100 percent Christian, there have been many non-Christians that swore on the Bible and did it because they wanted to abide by the law and respected it. The fact that these people chose to change it shows that people are standing up for their beliefs and their own religion as well as continue the tradition of the country and swear on a