During a segment of The View Thursday morning, host Barbara Walters expressed her concerns over politicians swearing on a Bible upon taking office, noting the importance of “the separation of church and state” as an American value.
The comments came up as the View crew discussed Sen. Mark Pryor‘s (D-AR) new political ad apologizing for his Obamacare support as well as insisting that the Bible should be a guiding presence in politics.
After playing the ad, actress Jane Seymour told her hosts that “I think it’s really unfortunate when you have to bring religion into politics. I think religion is a very personal thing, a very personal thing.”
Walters agreed:
That is very true, but it starts almost with the oath of office which usually ends with “So help me God.” Now, most presidents swear on a Bible before taking office, even though we have the separation between church and state. You see it again and again. You don’t have to use a Bible. Teddy Roosevelt didn’t. John Quincy Adams swore on a law book and Lyndon Johnson took the oath on a book he thought was the Bible. We don’t know what the book was. […] We talk about the separation between church and state and almost every president ends up saying so help me God.
“The basic tenet in America is the separation,” she later added. “It’s very important, the separation of church and state.”
(Sources: Mediaite.com and ABC-TV)
