Atheists Seek to Remove the Word ‘God’ From Oath

Madalyn Murray O’Hair and members of her atheism advocacy organization--fed up with being rejected from state court jury duty--have filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to strike the words “so help me God” from the oath that prospective jurors must take.

O’Hair and her son, Jon Murray, president of the Society of Separationists, said they and members of their group have been deprived of jury duty for refusing to take the oath.

“There is no need to call upon an imagined God to assist one in civic duties,” O’Hair said. “If each individual juror must seek the help of a god to come to a decision, no wonder the legal and jurisprudence system of the United States is currently in the mess it is.”

O’Hair said it was “degrading and humiliating” to be forced to seek supernatural help in the discharge of civic duties, adding that “these ideas should have been garbage-canned a hundred years ago.”

Murray said the atheist group objected to the oath that prospective jurors must take and a second oath administered to a panel once it has been seated. Both oaths contain the phrase, “so help me God.”

The group also objects to a summons card sent to prospective jurors that seeks to determine the individual’s religion.

Under the present system, he said an atheist would have to lie in order to serve on a jury.

“Every time that an atheist has objected, they have been dismissed from jury service,” Murray said.

Murray said his mother had been summoned for jury duty six times in the last 10 years and was rejected each time because she refused to take the oath. On one occasion, he said a judge had O’Hair removed from the room, detained in his chambers, then lectured her on why she should have gone along with the oath.

Murray said he and other members of the atheist group have also been rejected from jury duty for refusing to take the oath.

O’Hair said that asking an atheist to take the oath would be the same as asking a Christian to denounce God.

“An honest atheist will object, (but) an atheist who has been hounded by his relatives or his employers and who is hypocritical and fearful might go along with it,” she said.