[Sca-cooks] OT- Peerage Oaths

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 24, 2009, at 5:15 PM, Celia des Archier wrote:

> So, in other words, Atlantia is violating Society policy... they're  
> just doing it like employers who get away with
> anti-discrimination laws, by "good ole boy" rules?  I really don't  
> know what to say to that.
>
> *Is* it unofficial policy?  The way folks were talking, it sounded  
> like the BoD mandate that there be an option was official policy
> that no one be inhibited from participation on the requirement to  
> swear fealty.  I haven't read the Corpora lately, so I'm not sure.
> But it would seem to me that the policy against religious  
> discrimination would apply in the case of requiring an oath of  
> fealty, so
> "vetting" people well in advance to prohibit them from becoming a  
> member of the Chivalry if they will not take an oath of fealty
> amounts to religious discrimination, so it seems to me that they're  
> going around a very important policy. Of course, I know from
> personal experience that the part of Corpora which is intended to  
> prevent religious discrimination can't actually prevent bigotry,
> but at least it *should* prohibit it's occurring in such a  
> systemized manner.
>
> I'm sorry... but what you're saying below is actually pretty  
> shocking to me.  Taking an oath, any kind of oath, is something that
> some people take very seriously, and I would expect a society based  
> on Chivalry to understand that such a requirement would hit on
> ethics or religious beliefs for many people.  So hearing that  
> members of a Kingdom's Order of Chivalry within the SCA are
> essentially skirting around non-discrimination policies to permit  
> them to discriminate against people who might hold religious
> beliefs or even just personal ethics which prevented them from  
> taking an oath of fealty to a temporary and pretend monarch - well...
> it's pretty shocking to me.
>
> I certainly wouldn't expect there to be a lot of people who would  
> choose to become an MoA rather than a Knight/Dame, but I would
> expect those who do to be people with very strong religious and/or  
> ethical values... exactly the type of people whom we would *want*
> in the Order of Chivalry.

And, of course, since none of us has ever seen a member of the  
Chivalry (or other peerage) break an oath (have we???), it becomes all  
the more important that this high standard be maintained. Right?

I was the apprentice of a Laurel who's a practicing Quaker, and he had  
trouble with the concept of an oath of fealty, which I suspect he  
passed on, in part, to me.

I've just been really careful not to make any promises I'm not certain  
I can keep, or to make any secret of who it is, in the Society, that I  
serve.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter