Religious unbelievers in ‘league of their own’ in US politics

At a time when 88% of Congress identifies as Christian, a minority of U.S. lawmakers are choosing not to check a specific faith box.

NewsNation

Before U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman “came out” as a secular humanist, those closest to the California congressman warned separating himself from the rest of Capitol Hill could produce disastrous results.

Yet, Huffman, D-C.A., remains part of a super minority of U.S. politicians who remain uncommitted to a specific faith group.

Among the 118th Congress, 88% of Congress identifies as Christian at a time when almost 30% of Americans are characterized as “religious nones,” according to a 2023 Pew Research poll. Only Huffman and Arizona independent Kyrsten Sinema check the box of religiously unattached or unbelieving — making up 0.2% of the 535-member lawmaking body.

Many candidates and lawmakers alike are leery to identify as anything but Christian, Huffman says, fearing political backlash. He says it makes him the only legislator “the only one dumb enough” to become what he refers to as a “religious oddity.”

“That really puts me in a league of my own,” Huffman told NewsNation.

Huffman was once devoutly Mormon and even a member of the denomination’s priesthood.

But after checking the Humanist box, the Democrat says he is among a quietly growing number of politicians who are uncomfortable with being forced into a religious box, which he finds limiting while the majority of his congressional colleagues represent a Christian category that has several denominational sectors.

New Jersey state Sen. Andrew Zwicker has stepped out even further.

Zwicker considers himself a “multi-generational atheist” who jokes he has been in more churches, temples, synagogues, and other houses of worship since he was elected than ever before.

Yet, his standing as a non-believer and blue state representative has not cost him in ways it might in more conservative parts of the country.

“It’s not about what I believe or don’t believe in,” Zwicker told NewsNation. “It’s more about, we are a country of … all faiths and the freedom to have any faith or no faith at all.”

Huffman initially had concerns about how voters would react to what he jokingly refers to as his “leap of faith.”

A 2020 Gallup poll of voters showed that 40% said they would not vote for an atheist for president, which ranked as one of the largest percentages among several categories. It only trailed “socialists” — of which 55% of voters indicated they would not support.

But in a progressive district, Huffman captured 72% of the vote in the California primary election this March. He faces Republican Chris Coulombe in November.

Azhar Majeed, the director of government affairs for the Center For Inquiry, told NewsNation that politicians who identify as persons of faith have become co-mingled with being a decent person who will do the right thing and choosing to classify as an unbeliever can often be met with negativity.

“The question, I think in many voters’ minds is, ‘Is this a trustworthy person? Is this somebody who will do the right thing and have my interests in mind as a voter?'” Majeed said.

In the 1970s, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority carried a significant Washington influence. In the 1980s, one of President Ronald Reagan’s most important speeches came before religious broadcasters.

NewsNation political contributor George Will says in 2024, however, the political tide has turned in matters of faith.

Will, a self-identified atheist who “doesn’t make a deal of it,” says that among the most important questions to be asked is whether a political candidate cares about potential constituents.

“Very few people, it seems to me, say (a candidate) is unchurched, therefore, he’s ungodly, and therefore, he’s untrustworthy, unworthy, and disagreeable,” Will said. “I don’t think many people reason like that anymore.”

Yet, for many politicians, identifying as Christian means that “you’re not offending very many people and you’re pleasing a lot more people.”

Sinema, Congress’ other 0.2 percenter, was raised Mormon. But since leaving that faith group, she has stopped short of considering herself an atheist. When she was sworn into office, she did so by holding a bound copy of the U.S. Constitution rather than the Bible.

A spokesman told CBS News that Sinema’s choice had more to do with her fondness for the Constitution rather than a defiant act of non-belief.  Sinema’s office did not respond to NewsNation’s interview request.

Huffman, the card-carrying Humanist, technically considers himself an atheist.

Humanists believe in “good without God” and base their beliefs on science and rationality, Huffman said. They also are committed to a moral obligation to those around them as human beings and do not subscribe to incentives for an afterlife or a penalty toward hell.

Atheism, meanwhile, is not an affirmative belief there is no god, but instead, a rejection of the assertion that there are gods, according to the website for American Atheists.

Huffman agrees that there is still a clear stigma linked to the word which he calls an “incomplete label” that prioritizes atheists don’t believe rather than what they’re for.”

While Zwicker isn’t shy about his atheism, he says he doesn’t lead with it either, avoiding a trap that some conventional wisdom suggests may exist, experts say.

“It kind of becomes low-hanging fruit,” Majeed said. “I just think it becomes a line of attack that you are opening yourself up to.”

In 2007, only 16% of Americans did not identify with religion while 78% considered themselves Christian, Pew reported.

By 2023, 28% identified as religiously unaffiliated. Among that group, 17% were atheists, 20% were agnostics, and 63% said they believed in “nothing in particular.”

Shortly after coming out, Huffman co-founded the Congressional Free Thought Caucus along with Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin in 2017. The group started with just four members but has since grown to 23, Huffman said.

Despite the group’s growth, Huffman says that politicians tend to lag behind what is “happening in the real world.”

With more Americans choosing to lose their religion, Will and Majeed insist lawmakers will eventually do the same as they are a governmental institution that is representative and broadly reflects the contours of the country.

“Progress has been slow and it’s not necessarily going to be a 1-for-1 change,” Majeed said. “But with each succeeding generation, you’re going to have a higher percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated. I don’t think that’s going to go in the other direction any time soon.”