Why do Presidents swear in on the bible?
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  Why do Presidents swear in on the bible?
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Author Topic: Why do Presidents swear in on the bible?  (Read 6845 times)
Gary J
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« Reply #25 on: August 21, 2014, 04:49:50 PM »

Custom and personal choice. It is not a legal requirement and as has been pointed out not all Presidents have followed the custom.

Rather than the First Amendment, I would have thought the more relevant constitutional provision was the prohibition of a religious test for office. There is also in the text of the original constitution, the choice of an affirmation as an alternative to an oath of office (which I believe Zachary Taylor used, as his particular religious sect did not believe in swearing oaths).
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J. J.
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« Reply #26 on: August 21, 2014, 07:50:38 PM »

In PA government, there are oaths mandated by the state constitution.  I've taken it, but never on a Bible.

Washington started the tradition, as he was a Freemason, and it is traditional to take an oath upon a Bible; the Bible was hastily borrowed from St. John's Masonic Lodge. 

http://www.stjohns1.org/portal/gwib
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Potus
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« Reply #27 on: August 24, 2014, 08:20:06 AM »

Are you even required to swear on anything at all? Are you supposed to? Like, could I just put my hand up and that's okay?

Military oaths work similar to this, I believe.

Which I think is the grounds for the presidential oath. He's commander in chief of the armed forces. So he takes a military-style oath.
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