[T]here are severe consequences for lying, but it seems Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Bill Clinton were not too worried about that when they lied under oath. We can expect more perjury by high-ranking government officials if our legal system continues to remove from its courts and its oaths the knowledge of a sovereign God who punishes evil.

I'll add just one thing about Moore's preposterous argument, which doesn't really deserve much response: Nobody is forcibly removing God from witness oaths. "So help you God" is alive and well as a standard oath in American courtrooms, though you may opt out of the religious reference if it conflicts with your own beliefs - score one for religious liberty. I wasn't there, but feel confident that Scooter's own oath invoked God as well. You would think that reference would have been enough to jar his memory on the issue of bearing false witness, if admonitions from the almighty would have helped. Certainly there's no reason to believe a 2-ton monument on his way in to the building would have fared any better.

Moore is simply making things up when he suggests that oaths under God are as endangered as unconstitutional monuments to the Ten Commandments (which themselves aren't as endangered as they should be). In fact he doesn't offer a single instance to support his oath claim. I can't find evidence of even a recent challenge to standard oaths including reference to God, let alone a challenge that's gotten anywhere. And no court order finds the current practice unconstitutional. As for his favorite villain, the ACLU, which he says is "engag(ing) in a crusade to rid the courts of solemn reminders of God", the truth is that they "praised" the revised 2003 citizenship oath, which indeed ends with "so help me God." Doesn't sound like standard oaths "under God" are much of a concern of theirs.

An ironic column in which to stretch the truth...? [Cross-posted from the Baptist Joint Committee blog]

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