The everyday process for taking an oath of workplace, or for swearing testimony in a authorized setting in america, entails elevating one’s proper hand and sometimes putting the opposite hand on a non secular textual content, mostly the Bible. This act is meant to indicate sincerity and invoke divine witness to the truthfulness of the assertion being made. Nonetheless, there have been situations the place people have deviated from this customary apply.
Departures from established oath-taking conventions can stem from a wide range of components. Private beliefs, equivalent to not adhering to any faith or holding particular spiritual objections to oaths, might immediate a person to forgo using a non secular textual content. Considerations relating to the symbolic implications of utilizing a specific guide, or a want to venture a particular picture, may additionally contribute to the choice. Historic context reveals that whereas using a Bible has develop into extensively accepted, it’s not legally mandated for swearing an oath in america.