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Quote:'So help me God': S.C. atheist calls oath requirement unconstitutional
A South Carolina atheist, James Reel, is suing for the right to serve as a poll worker without having to swear an oath to God.
After completing three online courses in December 2023 and beginning in-person training, Reel learned he would be required to take an oath that ends with "so help me God." He asked instead to be allowed to use a secular affirmation, which is a solemn vow without reference to a religious deity, but election officials denied the request.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit based in Madison, Wis., stepped in last year to help.
Foundation staff attorney Madeline Ziegler said Reel does not want to profess a belief in a god, "which would make a mockery out of the oath and the solemn promise to support both the federal and state constitutions."
The distinction between an oath and affirmation is critical because the opportunity to substitute an affirmation is required under federal law, Ziegler said.
The lawsuit alleges violations of Article VI and the First Amendment's free speech, free exercise of religion and establishment of religion clauses. Reel is seeking a permanent injunction against requiring poll workers to swear "so help me God" and the provision of a secular affirmation.
The suit says the state of South Carolina routinely allows attorneys, jurors, witnesses and many others to make a secular affirmation as a matter of conscience.
The oath mandate bars a growing number of people from serving as poll workers, according to the suit, which cites a 2024 Pew Research Center report that says about 28% of the population is religiously unaffiliated. In South Carolina, approximately 16% are unaffiliated.
Foundation Co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor called the oath requirement a "discriminatory and blatantly unconstitutional practice."
"Jim Reel, a veteran who wants to continue serving his community as a poll worker, should be congratulated, not barred simply because he is an atheist," Gaylor said.
https://www.upi.com/amp/Top_News/US/2025...765310391/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
