Questions On "unbroken Tradition"
Many critics have taken Prager to task for saying that swearing in with a Bible is a "tradition that has been unbroken since George Washington." They point out that "In 1825, John Quincy Adams took the presidential oath using a law volume instead of a Bible, and in 1853, Franklin Pierce affirmed the oath rather than swearing it. Herbert Hoover, citing his Quaker beliefs, also affirmed his oath in 1929 but did use a Bible, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Theodore Roosevelt used no Bible in taking his first oath of office in 1901, but did in 1905." Other sources have noted that after John F. Kennedy was assassinated a Catholic Missal was used as no Bible could be found when Lyndon B. Johnson (who was not even Catholic himself, but a Disciple of Christ) had to assume the Presidency.
Prager has responded to some of this information in interviews. Eugene Volokh pointed out on "Paula Zahn Now" that Hoover didn’t swear on a Bible, but affirmed and took no oath. Prager replied "Herbert Hoover had a Bible. ...He just didn't swear by it, because I believe he was a Quaker. That's a very different story." On "Hannity and Colmes" Prager stated "The only president who did not have a Bible was Theodore Roosevelt, first term, and it was because McKinley had just been shot. Every president used a Bible." (Prager also questioned Colmes’ Boston Globe source that said in 1991 Massachusetts Gov. William Weld was sworn in without a Bible.)
The Library of Congress notes that "As the first Catholic elected president, Kennedy was the first to use a Catholic (Douay-Rheims) version of the Bible for his oath." This means that Kennedy’s Bible was different from the Bibles of all other Presidents (past or present) as it contained the Deuterocanonical books which Protestants call the Apocrypha and reject, claiming these works are non-canonical.
Read more about this topic: Keith Ellison, Dennis Prager, And The Oath On The Quran
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