Swearing on a stack of ...

Newly-elected U.S. Representative Keith Ellison plans to be sworn in with his hand on a Koran rather than on a Bible. Arguments about that appear to be either:
1) Duh, he's Muslim. Of course he wants to use the book he considers holy, and decent tolerant Americans will have no objection, (advocated here) or
2) Whatever his preference, he's joining a club, and must therefore play by the same rules as everyone else, one of which is being sworn in on a Bible. If exceptions haven't been made for Jews, Mormons, or Atheists, why make one now? (Advocated here.)

Why is it we swear in public officials using a Bible anyway? The answer is that having one's hand on a Bible while swearing is intended to encourage the one doing the swearing to take the words seriously and keep them rather than lying. (That many politicians sometimes lie is not new information.)

The problem with even being a Muslim taking such an oath, regardless of what book is beneath one's hand while doing so, is that Islam officially allows its followers to lie to those outside that faith. Presumably other non-Christian politicians over the years have also felt less than compelled to speak truth merely because their hand is on a particular book.

Even Christians have a problem with swearing on a Bible. In his best-known message Jesus taught "Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." (Mt 5:34-37 NIV)

Perhaps our public officials need to be sworn in with the help of a lie detector, rather than any book. In fact, I'd personally be in favor of having all speech monitored with lie detectors, if trustworthy ones can ever be developed. I'm all about freedom of speech, but also favor truth in advertising.

To that, I would add just one more bit of advice, from my mother (often heard just before Christmas in our house) "Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies." Although telling the truth was very important to Mom, she wasn't one to just blurt out whatever she was thinking. After all, not everyone who asks "Do I look fat in this?" actually wants a truthful answer.

Update: According to this article, one member of Congress also intends to be sworn in with a copy of Torah. If so, that somewhat undercuts argument #2.