“Raise your right hand and repeat after me, ‘I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the following is true and correct: I am a citizen of the United States and I have not knowingly or willingly made false statements, etc. etc.’”
Such were the words spoken to me through a hole cut in a one inch thick screen of plastic by a tired-looking clerk at my local county court house where I recently applied for a passport. With my right hand raised (having nothing to lay my left hand on, I firmly jammed it into my pocket) I dutifully affirmed that I was telling the truth. It was a solemn and legally binding oath. My form was signed, stamped, and I was dismissed to go about my day.
An oath is a curiously archaic sounding word to modern ears, and if it doesn’t bring to mind some knight kneeling before his king it at least conjures up the image of a courtroom and some berobed stern magistrate. But at its core an oath is a solemn promise, often calling the divine as witness, that the oath taker will abide by what he is promising. In that sense an oath is irrevocable, it is unbreakable, and it is meant to be seen through to the end.
What struck me as curious in my case was not the words themselves, or even that I was making an oath, rather it was the tone in which they were spoken that caused me to think. Here I was, swearing under penalty of perjury (a serious enough sounding charge) that I was who I said I was, to a harassed looking government official, in much the same way that I would order fast-food. It seems absurd, but that is how the matter was. It had all the air of an unpleasant formality that has to be observed in order to check a box and move on to more important business. And it was this flippancy, this disregard for something that is supposed to carry so much weight, that caused me to write about oaths and promises.
What happened to me is by no means something new or rare and if you’ve spent any amount of time in the adult world of government bureaucracy, chances are you have had to take a similar oath. In fact, after some reflection you will realize just how often you encounter these oaths. We see them when our official leaders are sworn into office, when a witness testifies before a jury, when we fill out college or job applications, when we sign a lease, when we get married. The more we examine our lives the more we will see just how integral oaths, solemn promises, are to them. And it is not only in our own lives and times that we come across oaths and promises. We notice them blazoned across the annals of history and literature: Yahweh made a covenant with Israel, Jonathan made an oath to David, Ea made an oath to Utnapishtim, Beowulf swore to rid Heorot of Grendel, King John swore to abide by Magna Carta, Benedict Arnold proclaimed allegiance to America, Napoleon agreed to peace with the Holy Alliance, Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with Russia, Feanor swore to recover the Silmarils, Menelaus declared he would win back Helen, and Achilles vowed to kill Hector. This is far from an exhaustive list but I hope it proves my point of just how pervasive is the idea of oaths, vows, and promises in the human psyche. And in almost all of these occasions the statements were accompanied by solemn and stately ceremonies, pomp and decorum, and even an invocation of the divine.
That brings me back to the present day and the problem I saw typified in my short interaction while getting my passport. Not that long ago, to be labeled as a man-of-his-word, someone who keeps their oaths, was one of the highest compliments. Indeed, one of the largest parts of being considered a gentleman by 18th and 19th century standards was whether or not you kept you word; you could be the most dissipated of rakes but if you backed up what you swore to do you would still be considered “gentlemanly”. If we take a step farther back to the Middle Ages, we see the entire idea of chivalry was built around the keeping of one’s word, i.e. an oath, one of mutual fidelity between liege and vassal. Feudalism itself couldn’t have survived if an oath meant nothing. A knight who broke his word and switched his allegiance was excoriated by the noble community, leaving an indelible stain on his honor.
The problem I mentioned earlier is this. While we in modern society have kept the form and appearance of oaths, the substance and meaning of the oath has been lost, to the detriment of our society. Take for example my passport. I swore on nothing and by nothing; I had no obligation to this governmental bureaucrat, no deity was invoked as witness, and if I had ill intentions I would have sworn anything they asked to get the results I desired. On top of that there was nothing particularly threatening to make me keep my oath. Feanor called on the Everlasting Dark if he did not keep his oath. Yahweh split animals in two in his covenant with Abraham, effectively stating let what is done to these be done to me should I not keep this. And what sort of penalty was I facing, should I not keep my oath? being “under penalty of perjury”. You may reply that that seems quite fearsome enough, but consider this: a brief survey of the Federal Justice Statistics shows that for the year of 2012 of the 334 charges of perjury, only 37.1% were prosecuted in Federal Court (I tried to look in 2021 and perjury wasn’t even listed, it was lumped in with “other”), and these charges were accompanied with a fine up to $1,000 and/or 1 to 10 years in prison. 334 cases in one year out of hundreds of millions of Americans. In effect, this “crime” of breaking my oath, is seldom prosecuted and when it is, very leniently. It is a paper tiger, a phantom of punishment. Simply put, modern society has removed the cost from breaking one’s word. In any other time and society breaking one’s promises, oaths, or allegiances has been considered the height of treachery and justly condemned by all upright citizens. Names such as Benedict Arnold, Brutus, and Judas still trigger a feeling of disgust and repulsion in all who hear them. A man who you cannot trust to keep his word is a man you want no part of.
And yet, people continue to break oaths every day. Consider the divorce rate in America. The oft quoted adage that 50% of marriages end in divorce is incorrect, with many articles stating the real rate is hard to come by. But they put it at anywhere from 20-40%. A look at the CDC's statistics for the number of divorces per year is staggering: in 2021 roughly 690,000 people got divorced. And since 2000 that number has been well above 500,000 divorces per year. This reflects the very real scenario of people breaking their oaths to one another. And what is the reason for this high volume of broken promises? Many explanations may be offered (such as socioeconomic inequalities, trends in generational goals, etc.), but at its root the best answer is the most simple one: people do not value keeping their word because society does very little to punish them when they break it. Indeed, divorce is not only no longer frowned upon or rare, but in many instances it is praised and commonplace.
Again, take a look at our office holders in just the last 40 years. Every single senator, congressman, judge, and President takes the following Constitutional Oath,
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
But how often have we seen and heard our politicians take these oaths? And how much more often have we seen them break them? For example, we were lied to about weapons of mass destruction being in Iraq. Bill Clinton lied about his relations to Monica Lewinsky. Richard Nixon denied being involved in covering-up Watergate. Time and time again, we see officials (of both political leanings) lying under oath during Senate inquiries and then getting away scot-free. I say this not to advocate for any party over the other, nor do I think this problem is one contained to a single societal or political sphere. I bring this up purely to demonstrate the point that when oath breaking is undeniably seen in the most visible and important tier of our society, and yet tolerated and left unpunished, this indicates and perpetuates the decay of honoring one’s word throughout all strata of our society. And who can blame them? If breaking an oath is not seen as a big deal for those in power, why should those not in power be held to the same standard? And so a vicious positive feed-back loop is formed, whereby politicians not being held accountable for breaking their oaths leads to a society not caring that their politicians are breaking their oaths. This then becomes pervasive throughout the society and ends in one where the honoring of our spoken obligations is disregarded and held of little account across the board.
What is to be done? This all paints a very bleak picture for our society. I would argue that this is correct, and that a society that is not based on and built around a mutual trust and belief in the rightness of keeping one’s word is a society built on sinking sand and one doomed to fail. The only remedy for this situation is a revaluing of the importance of oaths - not as a formality or quaint antiquated practice but as a serious and solemn matter that is not to be taken lightly. And not only do we need to have a newfound reverence for oaths, but more stringent measures need to be taken when these oaths are broken. Societal shame is not all bad, and if oath-breakers can be made to feel the effects of their offense and so repent, or serve as an example to others as to what happens when oaths are violated, then we are on the right road to a more wholesome, upright, and functioning society.
I mentioned last week that words have a power besides their meaning alone. That they can be used to lend shape and color to ideas in one person’s head and communicate them to another. But words can be (and are) used outside of art. They are used to build-up or destroy, to effect change or halt it, to give life or take it. What you say has meaning far beyond the definition of the words you use, and there are real life implications and consequences to the things you say you will do. These are potent powers indeed, but the power found in keeping one’s word is mightier still.
Happy Reading,
Drew
Our culture is too concerned with individual and emotional authenticity that to limit what we do based on something like an oath is deemed wrong.