As part of the oath ceremony, assuming you’re not a Jehovah’s Witness, or a paid-up member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you’ll probably stand and sing the national anthem. Since the Constitution doesn’t mandate the separation of church and state (it’s complicated, but if you check out the Supreme Court, you’ll see that the main aims of the Constitution are to avoid the favoring of one religion or a lack of religion by the State), there will be some ceremonial deism in the song. Which means you’ll sing about God, since the US was founded based on principals that there are some inalienable rights given to men by a Supreme Being.
And you’ll put your right hand over your heart. Looking at the diagram above, you’ll see that the heart in an adult male is:
- fairly central in the chest
- above the nipples
- below the clavicles
- an empty muscle
- the way to a man’s heart is not through his stomach. Unless you’re an incubating alien.
So make sure to put your right hand somewhere in that vicinity.
