Atheist politicians may run the UK, but they remain closeted in the US

Brian Pellot

LONDON (RNS) During a visit here four years ago, Maggie Ardiente of the American Humanist Association bragged to her British counterparts about the one atheist in the U.S. Congress, Rep. Pete Stark of California.

Her host, the chief executive of the British Humanist Association, indulged her for a moment before mentioning that the U.K.’ s All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group was 150 members strong, most of them elected atheists.

Earlier this month, Ardiente conceded at the World Humanist Congress meeting in Oxford: “We’re really behind when it comes to humanism in politics.”

After Stark, a Democrat, lost his House seat in 2012, the number of openly atheist politicians in U.S. Congress slipped back to zero.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/08/22/atheist-humanist-britain-america-arizona-whc2014-blair-cameron-miliband-clegg/