Oaths of Allegiance, Religion and Job Losses

I'm a historian of the Nonjurors, a somewhat exotic sect of Anglicans who refused to renounce their oaths to James II and take new oaths to the new monarchs -- William and Mary. The result of this refusal was a loss of jobs in church and state. You can read all about this in my book Visible and Apostolic (University of Delaware Press, 1993).

But you don't have to go back three centuries to discover people losing jobs over oaths of allegiance. Here in California there's an archaic law put on the books back in 1952 -- you know at the beginning of the Cold War, when everyone was afraid of Communists. This law requires that all state employees, including professors and lecturers at our state institutions of higher education must sign these oaths to defend the constitutions of the US and California. Interestingly, if you're a foreign citizen teaching at these institutions you don't have to sign them.

This little known law has caught in its dragnet a couple of Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses, either because their traditions object to oaths of allegiance or they're pacifists. Now, the UC system allows employees to offer an addendum explaining difficulties with the oaths -- which would appear to require them to bear arms to protect their state and nation. Some schools in the Cal State system, which seems a bit more rigid, allow for something similar, but not Cal State Fullerton.

Wendy Gonaver was hired to teach American Studies, but after refusing to sign the oath, she was let go.

As a Quaker from Pennsylvania and a lifelong pacifist, Gonaver objected to the California oath as an infringement of her rights of free speech and religious freedom. She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the
oath if she wanted the job.

"I wanted it on record that I am a pacifist," said Gonaver, 38. "I was really upset. I didn't expect to be fired. I was so shocked that I had to do this."

But the school would have nothing to do with such things. Rules are rules -- even if the UC system bends them.

Even more incredible, Marianne Kearney-Brown, another Quaker and a math instructor at Cal State East Bay, was initially let go after she inserted "nonviolently" into her oath -- she was later rehired. She makes an interesting point -- since non-citizens don't have to sign:

"The way it's laid out, a noncitizen member of Al Qaeda could work for the university, but not a citizen Quaker," she said.

Several years back campus police pulled a lecturer on world religions from his class because he hadn't signed the oath.

I'm 50 years old and I've never been forced to take an oath to obtain a job. Wild isn't it? Of course, these folk got into trouble because they took their oaths seriously. How many others just signed them without thinking about it?

You should read the whole "Column One article by Richard Paddock at the LA Times -- click here.