Democrats in a House committee have drafted new rules that would remove God from a witness oath.
By World Israel News Staff
Fox News reports that the House Committee on Natural Resources wants to remove the reference to God in an oath taken by witnesses testifying before the committee, part of a new set of rules to be approved this week.
According to the rules draft obtained by Fox News, the words “so help you God” are in red brackets, meaning they set to be cut from the new draft, which reads “Do you solemnly swear or affirm, under penalty of law, that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
The deleted phrase about God will be replaced by the addition “under penalty of law.”
The new rules would also remove gender-specific pronouns in favor of non-binary pronouns. “His and her” are to be replaced with “they and their.” Similarly, the committee’s “chairman” will instead be referred to as the committee’s “chair.”
Such language has been adopted in a number of U.S. states in recent years, including California, Oregon, Washington, D.C., Washington state, and Maine.
The full committee will vote this week whether to adopt the new rules which “would take effect immediately,” Fox News reports.
Republicans have come out against the move. Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney told Fox News, “It is incredible, but not surprising, that the Democrats would try to remove God from committee proceedings in one of their first acts in the majority. They really have become the party of Karl Marx.”