Breaking an Oath?

[OrangeOwl]

Okay, so I have a bit of a problem. The following is a bit more simplified than the actual situation, but I think it covers the same ground:

What happens if you take an oath, misunderstanding the oath’s purpose?

What I mean by this is, suppose you take an oath undertaking a duty/promise to do something. You understand that the oath means you are to do X. However, the person benefiting from the oath understands it to mean that you will do Y.

Are you bound to do either X or Y?

This situation I am in is really bothering me. I feel like if I break X, I would be taking the Lord’s name in vain. Although the actual oath did not mention God, when I took the oath I took it to mean that it did.

I’m terribly sorry if all of this is confusing, but I am rather confused myself!

 

[ibo]

Okay, so I have a bit of a problem. The following is a bit more simplified than the actual situation, but I think it covers the same ground:

What happens if you take an oath, misunderstanding the oath’s purpose?

What I mean by this is, suppose you take an oath undertaking a duty/promise to do something. You understand that the oath means you are to do X. However, the person benefiting from the oath understands it to mean that you will do Y.

Are you bound to do either X or Y?

This situation I am in is really bothering me. I feel like if I break X, I would be taking the Lord’s name in vain. Although the actual oath did not mention God, when I took the oath I took it to mean that it did.

I’m terribly sorry if all of this is confusing, but I am rather confused myself!

It seems that you’re not gonna sayd what it is.
But if you gve an example it would be better.

 

[PerfectTiming]

Your explanation is a little abstract but as far as I understand you promised to do X and therefore should fulfill that promise. But how removed Y is from X could affect it. If X would not be useful to the individual in question, then you could substitute Y for X. But if X is still useful but the individual expects more then I would say you are bound by X but if Y is not unreasonable then you could do Y as well.
I’m not sure how clear that explanation is but it’s hard to deal with something so abstract.

 

[puzzleannie]

the circumstances under which you can take a binding oath (under pain of sin) are extremely limited

if you mean you made a promise due to a misunderstanding your are not bound to keep it. if the promise was to do something sinful you must not keep it at all

 

[OrangeOwl]

Well, yes, basically I felt I made a promise due to a misunderstanding.

I wasn’t saying the exact situation because it’s long. Also (as you will understand later), I was afraid of saying something I promised not to say. But these are some more details:

I took a nationwide exam. Before everyone takes the exam, they stand up, raise their right hand, and swear not to be involved in any cheating. When I took this oath, I took it to mean that it was an oath with God as my Witness, made under penalty of sin. The actual exam was handed out, which had a seal on it that had to be broken before you could access the questions.

The cover of the exam had some language to the effect of “by breaking the seal, the test-taker promises not to disclose any questions or answers to anyone after the exam was finished.” I might have been somewhat distracted while the administrator was speaking, but she did say something about not talking to anyone about even how you felt about the exam. She gave an example of saying “Boy, that was a really tough exam.”

With all of this in mind, I thought to myself, “Okay, I am making a promise not to say absolutely anything of the exam.” I may or not have thought that I was also swearing under God not to say anything about it (and I’m pretty sure I did). With that in mind, I broke the seal.

……

After the exam was over, I happened to be walking along with the administrator. I took the opportunity to ask her if it really meant I couldn’t even tell others how I felt about the exam.

She said, “Oh, no, that was for during the exam. After the exam, that is all anyone can talk about. You’re going to be talking about it for the next two months [until you get the results back].”

I responded that I thought there was actual language on the front of the exam prohibiting saying anything about it.

And she replied, “Oh, yeah, there probably is. But everyone talks about it. It’s not like you’re going to remember the actual questions anyway.”

Just to be clear, the administrator for the exam doesn’t work for the people who created the exam. They are two separate entities, and the administrator isn’t authorized to speak on the exam-creators’ behalf.

I have no desire to talk to others about specific questions or answers. But this was a very critical exam, and I know others are going to continually ask me how it was and how I felt I did on it. These are questions that I promised not to answer before I broke the seal. This was a promise that I now feel was never asked of me. However, at the time of the promise, I might have been thinking (and I think I did) that I was making such a promise under oath, with God as my Witness, under penalty of sin.

This whole thing has got me panicked. Matters of confidentiality and non-disclosure always do.