The Atheists Are Coming! The Atheists Are Coming!

And leading the charge is 75 year-old Rep. Pete Stark (D-Ca), according to the Secular Coalition of America:

There is only one member of Congress who is on record as not holding a god-belief.

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), a member of Congress since 1973, acknowledged his nontheism in response to an inquiry by the Secular Coalition for America. Rep. Stark is a senior member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and is Chair of the Health Subcommittee.

Although the Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office, the Coalition's research reveals that Rep. Stark is the first open nontheist in the history of the Congress.

Okay, so he's a nontheist and a member of the Unitarian Church instead of an atheist, but give the man credit for admitting even that much, considering nonbelievers are the latest pariah of the American political system.

Will he get any grief for this? Probably not from his liberal district which has re-elected him since 1972, but wingnuts will have a field day using him for the tired canard that liberals = godless and godless = lack of morals or ethics, nonsense that a modern, civilized society like ours should grow out of sooner than later.

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