A true story about the separation of church and state.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Everyone is familiar with the famous photo of JBJ taking the oath of office on Air Force One after JFK was killed.

Air Force One was headed back to Washington with JFK's body in the cargo hold. The secret service wanted Johnson out of Texas ASAP, so the return flight was a rushed affair. But Johnson wanted to be sworn in before the plane took off, so the oath was administered by Sarah Hughes, a Texas judge who was a family friend, and happened to be near-by.

The 'Bible' LBJ has his hand on in that photo is John Kennedy's personal Missal that he traveled with, which was the only thing like a Bible on Air Force One.

Judge Hughes later said that she was worried that the oath might not be official because it was administered using a Catholic Bible. (She apprantly thought it was a Catholic Bible, not realizing it was a Missal.)

She wasn't trying to be stupid. It was an honest reaction from someone who was presumably in the top percentile of knowledge about the law. Yet her intuitive analysis was that 1) a Bible was needed to administer the oath, which it isn't, and 2) that the Constitution requires a speciffic translation of the Bible!

The assumption that America has an official religion, specifically Calvinism and its immediate off-shoots, runs deep.

[MonkeyFunk]

1. Actually

it wasn't a bible at all. It was a Catholic missal.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. Well aren't you smart!

"Two hours after President Kennedy was shot two cars in front of him in a Dealey Plaza motorcade, Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One in Dallas at Love Field Airport on November 22, 1963. He was sworn in by Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, a very close friend of his family, making him the first President sworn in by a woman. He is also the only President to have been sworn in on Texas soil. Johnson was not sworn on a Bible, as none could be found aboard Air Force One. A Roman Catholic missal was discovered in Kennedy's desk, and this book was used during the swearing-in ceremony.<15>"

I was writing from memory based on William Manchester's book about that day, and I think he thought it was a bible. Most of the internet references google spits out call it a bible.

But Wikipedia knows all!

Thanks for the clarification. I edited the OP to bring it in line.

But Sarah T. Hughes thought it was a Catholic Bible, and her reacion is the point. So the meat of the tale remains.

[MonkeyFunk]

4. heheh

It's a good story either way :D

[onenote]

5. any link to prove the claim about her reaction?

The OP makes a rather serious charge: namely that Judge Sarah Hughes expressly stated that she was worried that the oath might not be official because it was administered using a Catholic Bible. (She apprantly thought it was a Catholic Bible, not realizing it was a Missal.)

I'm curious where Judge Hughes made this statement. Its not in her oral history statement regarding the swearing in: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/HUGHES-S/hughes-s.pdf

and its not in Manchester's description of the swearing in http://www.orwelltoday.com/jfkbible.shtml

(Manchester does say she looked at the book "dubiously", without any further elaboration. Of course, given that Manchester's research was so incomplete that he described the book as a bible, not a missal, reading much into his statement seems rather risky).

[Vickers]

3. I've heard that Idiot George was sworn in using

a picture Bible.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Nonsense.

It was the "Classics Illustrated" bible.

[hayu_lol]

7. It wasn't necessarily LBJ's desire to be quickly sworn in...

In athe case of a dead president, the Constitution mandates the immediate takeover so that there is a president in control.