Enough to make you swear

Christian Century, April 8, 2008

ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SWEAR: California State University at East Bay fired Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker mathematics instructor, because she refused to sign an unaltered state loyalty oath. In previous teaching positions she would sign the oath, but add her own modifiers so as to align it with her pacifist Quaker convictions.

Instead of saying swear she inserted affirm. And she would add nonviolently when saying she would "support and defend" the U.S. and state constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." California State wouldn't allow such amendments. Kearney-Brown said all the university cared about was whether she signed an unaltered oath, not whether she meant it; nor did it care about the quality of her teaching (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 3).