In Theory: Will there ever be an atheist president?
Author Gary Scott Smith writes in the Washington Post that it’s unlikely that an atheist could ever be elected president.
Smith asks, “So could atheists have their JFK moment soon?” in reference to President John F. Kennedy’s Catholic faith and the collective reservations felt by the electorate in 1960.
But despite the rise of Americans who do not consider themselves affiliated with any specific faith, Smith points to a 2014 Pew Research Center poll that found that of these unaffiliated Americans, twice as many said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who does not believe in God than those who indicated they’d be more likely to do so (24% to 12%). The majority (64%) said a presidential hopeful’s atheism would not matter.
“It appears that an overt atheist would have more difficulty being elected than Barack Obama did in becoming the nation’s first black chief executive or a woman or gay candidate would have in winning the White House,” Smith writes. “Being identified as an atheist in the United States today is still such a major political liability that a candidate holding this position probably could not gain a major party’s nomination for president or even the Senate.”
Q. Do you think there will ever be an openly atheist president?
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Most of us have learned to “never say never,” and please accept my apology for the split infinitive! However, I think it would be difficult for an atheist to be elected president. Even with church attendance down and going lower, America is still one of the “most religious” countries there are, and maybe even the “most religious,” whatever that means. So while most of us are sick and tired of those who would push their faith on us, when it comes to the ballot box, I think most voters would be afraid to vote for an atheist. Why afraid?
Partly superstition, and partly because even if we have questions about God, most of us probably don’t want to be known as the person who voted for an atheist. I mean, what if there really is a God, and that God saw me check the box for the atheist! It may be irrational, and a bit superstitious, but I think when you get right down to it, most voters would not want it to be public record that they voted for a nonbeliever. They may never go to church or religious services, and they may hate religion in general, but most are still afraid to make a solid and open vote for a nonbeliever. Also, think of the leap of faith it would take to vote for an atheist. Wouldn’t you rather choose someone who is not sure and who keeps open the possibility that there might be a God? How depressing to cast your ballot for one who holds out no possibility for any “outside” ray of hope.
William Ernest Henley said it best in his poem, “Invictus:” “I’m the master of my fate; I’m the captain of my soul.” Really? Do you really believe that? By the way, the author of those words took his own life in 1910.
The Rev. Skip Lindeman
La Cañada Congregational Church
La Cañada Flintridge
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Sadly, I think it’s possible eventually, even if it’s not likely in the very near future. Our country has already crossed a number of moral lines that previous generations would have considered unthinkable. Some of these include the acceptance of premarital cohabitation, the legalization of abortion and marijuana use and the recognition of same-sex marriage. Most recently we have even lost our freedom to choose or reject health insurance. No, the future inauguration of an openly atheist president would not surprise me given the direction our nation has headed in recent years.
So what’s the problem with having an atheist as president? Psalms 14:1 and 15:1 both say, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The designation “fool” in the Bible does not mean that a person lacks intelligence or skill. It means that he denies the existence of any person who is greater than himself. He rejects God, who has clearly revealed himself in creation and the consciences of men, thus he is foolish. He believes that he is accountable to no being greater than other humans, if to anybody at all. He holds no higher authority than the word of man and disdains the word of God. This absence of the time-tested, eternally true moral anchors of God’s word and God’s person leaves him wide open to all the corruptions of fallen human nature: “Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these…” (Galatians 5:19-21). The temptations of these are difficult to avoid even for the most devout of God’s people. They are absolutely impossible to avoid for those who reject Him. Many people have used this expression in an off-handed way, but biblically it is very true: The last thing we need is a fool in the presidency.
Pastor Jon Barta
Burbank
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I am with the great presidents of our nation’s history who have weighed in regarding this. George Washington said, “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” James Madison once remarked, “The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.” James Monroe declared, “Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.” Jimmy Carter admitted, “You can’t divorce religious belief and public service.” And Ronald Reagan rightly opined, “If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
The Bible, too, speaks about this issue, saying, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12). Now while that verse is referring to ancient Israel, which lived under a theocracy, imagine the opposite sentiment directed at us: “Unblessed is the nation whose god is none.” So much for “God Bless America,” “One Nation Under God,” and “In God We Trust,” if our very highest elected representative believes none of that “nonsense” and governs accordingly by our own consent. We may have a fickle nation that debates God’s identity, but it overwhelmingly expresses an acceptance that he’s out there and takes an active concern regarding us corporately and individually. How then could we just chalk it all up and say, “It doesn’t matter; God doesn’t matter, just as long as we can vote in the next most ethnically distinct, sexually particular, and politically beholding individual to be our ‘divine’ ruler”?
If we are so slack in our spiritual concerns (merely giving lip-service to God without ever searching for him, living for him, or obeying him) we may well one day be led by a Fuehrer who hates the God we ourselves have hated by ambivalence. If we are to be remotely rescued, we must at least vote for the lesser of all evils, and atheism is one of the worst — and most foolish (Psalm 14:1).
The Rev. Bryan Griem
Montrose Community Church
Montrose
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As I was considering the question of whether an atheist could be elected president of the United States, I looked back to my childhood when the words “under God” were added to our pledge of allegiance. To most younger people today, that is an amazing revelation. “You mean it hasn’t always been there?” they might ask with amazement. But I remember the day in 1954 when we were asked to say the pledge at school with the added words. So what has changed?
I know that a number of presidents in our history, including Thomas Jefferson, who, while not declaring themselves as atheists, were elected even though they were not devout followers of a particularly religious path. So why would it be so difficult for an atheist to be elected today? I believe that in the last 20 or 30 years, there has been a much greater awareness of atheism as a choice for people, undermining of the belief that all people believe in God. Consequently, there is now a greater fear by some conservatives of what a more progressive view of religion could mean for our country. So rather than our becoming more open-minded in our views about religion, some have moved back to a protectionist stance.
There is the mistaken notion, something that I recently heard from a member of the local clergy, that secular humanists are all lacking in morality and integrity. And that belief has caused some people to become even more afraid of an atheist president than they might have been in previous eras. I am not an atheist or agnostic, but I hope that the time will come that such an appellation will not keep someone from becoming President of the United States. However, right now, I think fear and lack of understanding will keep such an event from happening — maybe in my lifetime.
Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills
La Crescenta
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Ever is a long, long time, so I’ll go out on a limb and say that, yes, we will have an openly atheist president.
Despite our Constitution disallowing an established religion, official references to an imaginary, supernatural being are common — on our money, in our flag salute, to begin government meetings, and in speeches by officials of the tiniest hamlets on up to our commander in chief.
The question of an atheist president should be irrelevant in our system of separation of church and state. We atheists have certainly been accepting of non-atheist presidents, if not of their politics. If only non-atheists would emulate the rest of us in our remarkable tolerance. And our country be more righteous in deeds, not just words.
Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose