On March 12th, the Secular Coalition for America announced the results of the contest/survey to find the highest level non-theist (non-believer in God) in American Politics. Their results revealed that Pete Stark, a Representative from California, was that individual. Rep. Stark, a Unitarian, was the only self identified non-theist found in the entire Federal Government.
Given the state of political discourse right now, that’s not surprising. There is a significant minority in this country that would vote against any atheist candidate, regardless of his or her politics. Thus there is a strong motivation to at least show some religious belief.
It hasn’t taken long for the Christian Right and their various mouth pieces to respond. Yesterday the Christian Seniors Association issued a press release with the following pearls of wisdom.
“It is sad but not surprising that the current Congress has produced this historic first – one of its members has denied God,” said CSA Executive Director James Lafferty. “The liberals in Congress want to throttle any school child who bows his or her head in prayer, but they want to establish a right for liberals to bash Christians and berate God around the clock.”
So answering a survey and indicating you don’t believe in God = throttling children. Good to know.
“Congressman Stark’s statement is a very sad benchmark for America. It could be the moment which defines the decline of our country or it could be the spark which marks an important day.”
Or, it could mean jack squat nothing. To the best of my knowledge, Rep. Stark has not once tried to outlaw religious practice. Furthermore, there is little to indicate that he has done a damn thing to harm me, my family or any one I know. He is not a threat to me. The only thing he is a threat to, is to those who want to see America remade as a “Christian Nation”. To them, there is nothing more threatening than a public figure, confident in his non-theism and yet still doing good work for his constituents and his country.
You don’t need to believe in God to be a good Representative. In fact it might even help.
HatTip to Pharyngula for original story and CSA press release.
Posted in Grrrrrr!!!!, Interesting people, News and politics, Religion
I keep ending up discussing creationism, intelligent design, war of cultures ad nauseam. If blogosphere is an approximation of public opinion in the real world, I am tempted to not only become an atheist, but also buy a cozy little island at a convenient (i. e. greatest possible distance) from larger groups of people and settle there ;S
