Atheist Group Claims There Are 24 Closeted Atheists In Congress
An atheist organization has recently claimed that there are 24 members of U.S. Congress who are atheist, but refuse to openly express their lack of faith for fear of reprimand from the American public.
Maggie Ardiente of the American Humanist Association recently claimed that 24 of members of Congress do not believe in God. "We already know of 24 members of Congress who have told us privately that they don't believe in God, but they won't come out, of course, and if we tried to out them they would deny it," Ardiente claimed.
Currently, candidate James Woods is running for Arizona's 5th Congressional District as a representative of the Democratic party. Woods, who is both blind and identifies as an atheist, told Patheos blogger Daniel Fincke back in April that he believes there is a bias against atheists in American culture, including politics.
"There is definitely […] It's not so much that we're put upon, other than just a perception bias, for whatever reason […] because we don't believe, we're [perceived to be] immoral or we 'don't believe in anything,'" Woods told Fincke.
"But there's definitely a bias [giving] a certain favoritism or credence towards especially Christians in this country. They're given the benefit of the doubt, and we aren't. I think that's the biggest problem we face as open nonbelievers," Woods added.
Currently, there are no open atheists in U.S. Congress. Rep. Barney Frank only came out as an atheist after he retired from Congress, and Rep. Pete Stark of California, an open atheist, lost his seat in 2012.
