Could a Satanist Run for Office?
By Grand Magister Blackwood Satanic Truth!
www.templesofsatan.com
when Minnesota voters chose Keith Ellison as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2006, it sparked a national controversy over the role of religion in political life.
Ellison, a Muslim, announced shortly after his election that he would take his oath of office on the Quran when he was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2007. As the first Muslim ever to serve in Congress, Ellison brought to light important questions—and misconceptions—about what the U.S. Constitution and American tradition require of public officials.
Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution requires the President-elect to take the following oath before assuming office: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Article VI requires all other state and federal office holders “be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution.”
Significantly, the Constitution says “swear” or “affirm” and “oath” or “affirmation.” Recognizing that some religions forbade believers to swear allegiance to anything other than God, the Founders made sure the religious restriction would not prevent public officials from serving. They allowed any oath-taker to be sworn into office with a clear conscience by giving them the option to “affirm.”
It is known that one doesn’t have to be Christian to be elected to office.
The relevant passage says nothing about swearing on the Bible or any other religious text. Nor does the oath of office conclude, “So help me, God.” George Washington chose to add these words at his first swearing in, and his successors have followed suit.
Is religion a qualification for public office? No. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution specifically states that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Religious qualifications for state and local office were struck down the Supreme Court in the 1961 case Torcaso v. Watkins.
Weren’t religious qualifications for public office once a common thing? Yes, but the practice was abandoned on the federal level more than 200 years ago. Even at the time they were in force, such provisions were controversial. In his famous Virginia Statute Establishing Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “[T]he proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to the offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right.”
John Leland, a Baptist minister and friend of Jefferson’s, put it even more succinctly: “If a man merits the confidence of his neighbors in Virginia let him worship one God, twenty Gods or no God be he Jew, Turk, Pagan, or Infidel, he is eligible to any office in the state.”
So how does making someone swear an oath on a holy book constitute a “religious test?” Expecting someone to swear an oath on a holy book in effect asks the person to acknowledge that book’s supreme authority.
Even allowing each official to choose a holy book would still exclude agnostics, atheists,satanists and of course believers whose religions don’t have a sacred text or those wishing to “affirm” rather than swear to uphold the laws.
Making any person pay reverence to any religion violates not only Article VI’s “No Religious Test” Clause, but also the First Amendment’s religious freedom provisions.
The First Amendment prohibits the law, and government officials, from promoting any religion.
Designating the Bible as the official oath book elevates Christianity and its followers above all other faiths and citizens in the government’s eyes. Freedom of religion also prohibits official prescriptions or proscriptions of religious exercise.
Asking someone to swear an oath to a Christian God forces them to express a religious belief they may not hold and denies their right to pay homage to their own God, or abstain from religious expression altogether.
The Bible has traditionally been used in swearing-in ceremonies only because a significant majority of elected officials have been Christians.
Nothing in the Constitution requires taking the oath on a holy text. Rep. Keith Ellison is not the first to forgo using a Bible. According to historical accounts , several elected officials have used their own holy books or affirmed without one
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President John Quincy Adams placed his hand on a law book rather than the Bible in 1825.
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President Franklin Pierce affirmed his oath to uphold the Constitution without using a holy book in 1853.
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President Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible for his first oath of office in 1901.
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President Herbert Hoover, citing his Quaker beliefs, placed his hand on a Bible but affirmed rather than swore an oath in 1929.
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Other notables have used other books during swearing in ceremonies, so it can be conceived once a Real Satanic Bible is produced a Satanist could swear oath to such a book.
Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg used a Tanakh, which is the complete Hebrew Bible, for his swearing in ceremony in 1962.
Madeleine Kunin, the first female governor of Vermont, placed her hand on Jewish prayer books when she took her oath in 1985.
Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle took her oath on a Tanakh in 2002.
Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) took her oath on a Tanakh in 2005.
Someday perhaps a Satanist can and will run, I can only hope!
This author is disqualified because of past issues with law enforcement in my teenage years, but we as Satanists can only be hopeful for the future and perhaps when you are sworn in as a Governor, a Senator or even a Mayor you will be able to place your hand on a Real Satanic Bible and swear allegiance to The Lord and Master Satan.
Hail Satan
Grand Magister Blackwood
www.templesofsatan.com
