Members of congress should answer to these surveys: "My personal religious conviction is a strictly private business and not relevant for exercising my current job, representing ALL my constituents with their different backgrounds".
That would be great. Of course, it will never happen so long as republicans in particular wear their religion on their sleeves and use it as a shield against any criticism that their policies are hurting the poor and the marginalized.
What I find slightly troubling here is that "agnostic" had to be a write-in option. It would be interesting to see the full list of options that CQ actually offered. It's as though when they ask the religion question, they assume that there must be one, from a list of "approved" religions.
Agreed. It gives one to wonder whether those who formulated the survey are a bit twitchy about alternative belief systems or the lack thereof. It may be that, as more "nones" find their way into public office, that the list of choices may perforce have to be expanded just a tittle bit!
Well, as long as "Christian = Good" in the minds of so many Americans, the religion question will continue to be asked. I agree that it should be no one's business. To give you an example, I once asked my brother, a pastor, if, given the choice between two candidates, one whose political views matched his own but was openly atheist and one who whose political views were the opposite but was a devout Christian, which one he would vote for. He replied that he probably wouldn't vote.
Far too many Americans are indoctrinated from birth to equate religiosity with morality, in spite of the fact the two things, while not mutually exclusive, have little to do with each other. What the religious communities do not teach is the history of what religious people acting in the name of their religion have done to their fellow humans.
Personally, I think leaving the religion space blank is a perfectly acceptable answer in a country with a constitution that prohibits religious tests for public office. I take 'blank' to mean 'none of your business', 'I choose not to answer', or 'f-off.' All acceptable choices. I suspect many of the blankers are actually secular.
While about 1/3 of our population is now non-religious or unaffiliated, sadly, it's still a socially acceptable political cudgel to hit someone with. So, I applaud the trailblazers who are willing to own their non-belief openly. Let's hope courage is contagious.
D.A. anecdote: When I was in the USAF (1969-1973) our dogtags had our name, SSN, blood type and religion. In those days there weren't many choices and atheist was definitely not on the list. The best choice was None so that is what I selected. The kicker was that it wasn't phrased as "Religion" but as "Religious preference". Thus "None" had the implication that you were religious but you didn't care which brand....no particular preference, any religion would do. So when I was in sick bay, all the chaplains would take the opportunity to visit. Annoying.
I know that the list has expanded since then but I'll bet the chaplains still try to visit atheists and Nones
Ugh. When I went into the hospital for major surgery in 2000, one of the things the intake clerk asked was about my religious preference. I told her, "None", which in retrospect was a bad answer. This was a county hospital, and various religious hospital ministries had large offices on the first floor. They interpreted my "none" answer as an invitation to come barging into my room at all hours, even when I was sleeping or undergoing treatment. I remember one coming in and peering over a nurse's shoulder when he was cleaning a wound on my upper thigh. I screamed at that "minister" to leave, and he gave me quite a bit of backchat, which I was in no mood to tolerate. I ended up having to buzz the nurses' station several times a day to get rid of those jackasses, because my request to post a note denying them entrance was ignored. Later on, I was told that all "nones" were seen by those ministers as mission fields--potential converts.
I'm in the Bible Belt and the last few times I had surgery, Evangelical pastors tried to visit me in spite of my writing in "Atheist." My wife and I sent them packing with confused looks on their faces. I'm sure they "preyed" for me anyway, but at least I didn't have to see or listen to it.
12 years after the above bad experience I went into a Catholic hospital for further major surgery. That time, I told the intake clerk to write "Atheist" on my paperwork, and specifically to post on my room door that only pre-approved visitors could enter. Worked like kryptonite. They even assigned me a single room, so I wouldn't be bothered by wandering collars!
I'm a little concerned about becoming a target for door-to-door "witnessing" by the churches those pastors represent. You'd be surprised how bold and persistent the churches are here.
Indeed. They try to get people when they are at their most vulnerable. (Thus hospital and nursing home ministries.) At home, I've made up and practiced a couple of stories about my, er, off-beat beliefs and trot them out as necessary. The looks on their faces when they hear the nonsense that I can spout are fucking priceless. They drag their kids away, and generally don't come back for more.
A few years ago at a VA hospital I told a minister to shove his jesus up his ass and told him I would call security to have him removed. Never bothered by one in subsequent visits.
When I had my gallbladder out in March of 2016, I told the interviewing nurse straight-up that I was an atheist, and any preacher coming in to try to proselytize me was in for an interesting time.
Mostly they aren't trained to deal with atheists. Or, for that matter, with obscure beliefs (or made-up beliefs.) They expect agreement, docility, especially when we are vulnerable, and we don't gotta give them that.
Not only DON'T I gotta give 'em that, I WON'T. I'm no Matt Dillahunty or Seth Andrews, but I DO know what I'm talking about as it comes to atheism, and I refuse to censor myself!
Indeed. I yell at them also. I don't think these parasites deserve any respect, frankly. I have found out that sometimes mocking them hurts their fee-fees worse, and shuts them up faster, than just cussing them out.
The last time I was in a hospital I don’t remember anyone asking me about religion ever during the 4 days I was there. I got there via ambulance at 4 am from a different hospital. No chaplain ever came to see me during my time there. I also don’t remember the first hospital asking me either. It is possible that my bride was with me at the first hospital and told them atheist and that this info was passed along to the second hospital. I frankly have no recollection.
The one thing I remember from after my arrival was that they kept asking me my name and birthday, which is some kind of protocol for making sure they have the right person. I was in excruciating pain from internal bleeding. I was told later that at some point, after I had been asked for this info for the nth time, I said “Won’t somebody write this down?” Which amused the ER staff to no end.
My dad did have some dementia very late in his life, but he could never resist joking with his docs and nurses when they asked his name and birthday. He'd sometimes say, "The day after Thanksgiving" or "Pearl [Harbor] was a week after my 20th birthday." He hated having to spell his name though (it was a French one, and nobody ever pronounced it correctly) so I got stuck with that part. About 5 years ago, I wrote to the VA to get copies of his service papers from WW2, and found out that all three of his names had been misspelled on his discharge forms, so they'd been misfiled. No wonder dad was so senstive on the topic!
That's a good one! I suspect the ER staff are also asking for your name/birthday as a way of assessing if you are still all there mentally. I remember, before my two surgeries, the staff asking "which hip?" and then marking the correct one on my leg. They *really* don't want to do the wrong side!
Wow,I never thought about that. Thanks for the info. If I'm ever in a hospital, I guess I'll just have to lie; I have a very short fuse with religious types these days.
Ooh, the trick is to (a) make shit up *in advance*, don't wait til the last minute or til when you're vulnerable, (b) memorize the fuck out of your story, (c) don't say anything that is checkable (i.e. "I believe in X [made-up deity] from Y [obscure place nobody has ever heard of/you've just made up]. They offered me Z to convert [I listed "a pig and as many coconuts as I could carry."] and (d) Sincerely Want To Share Your Beliefs With Them, the misguided heathens. They won't be able to run away fast enough. The weirder and more sincere the better.
I used to live there until 2017, lived in Georgia for a couple of years, moved back to Florida, then up to Minnesota in early fall 2020 -- THAT was a fun time to move, right in the middle of a pandemic.
Yes, one or two snowstorms since I’ve been here, but nothing compared to the one we got stuck in when we visited Green Bay.
Strange, though, the previous two years, we had snow during winter, but it never stayed more than a few days or a week at most before it retreated back to the shadows and protected areas. I kind of wonder if it’s partly due to the bluffs and the river valley, or of it’s yet another sign of climate change.
As for this year, so far the same; but we still have January and February. Anything can happen.
In college, the school sent out cards that you could fill out asking various things about you. It was completely voluntary, and I think it was a way to hook you up with various student organizations that you may be interested in. Majoring in Smartass, I filled out the religion question "Peoples Temple". For the next year or so I regularly got mail from the campus Hillel (https://www.hillel.org/) group. I guess they thought I was Jewish.
Military chaplains are a bit different from civilian ministers in that they're supposed to serve all faith perspectives (including nones). The best of them take that responsibility seriously, the worst push their faith and abuse their rank when doing so.
USNavy about a decade later. Methodist on my dog tag. We only wore them in boot camp. Only saw one chaplain during my hitch and that was a brief orientation check off on a new ship. Never had an extended stay in sick bay.
Eta: I was 17 when I joined. Turned 18 towards the end of bootcamp. I didn't know any better.
I gave birth to my first kid iat a military has hospital and since my dog tag’s always had Roman Catholic (for my parents, not me) the chaplain kept coming by to pray over us and he left a medal of (iirc) Saint Christopher with us.
At the time, of join the military and later when I had my first baby, I wasn’t practicing any religion but I also wasn’t an atheist yet. The tags were so that my parents could do whatever if anything happened to me. I knew then it didn’t matter how they grieved, I would be dead and they needed the comfort of their religion. Now, I would rather they followed my husband’s wishes if I were going to before them. I am sure they will, my brother’s funeral was nominally not a religious event, though his friend who is a minister was asked to speak god nonsense. Nothing formal though, it was centered on my brother but too godly for me still.
It's been a painfully slow journey, but it seems as though our representative government is at least beginning to resemble our general population and, in particular, the rise of the non-religious. Ms. Randall's and Ms. Ansari's religious declarations as "none" and "agnostic," respectively, are a refreshing indicator that those of us who do not labor under an irrational belief ARE ELECTABLE and indeed, HAVE been elected to public office. I congratulate Ms. Randall and Ms. Ansari for their successful campaigns. I would further suggest that they consider joining the Congressional Freethought Caucus, where they will find people whose thinking is more oriented toward the law than toward religion.
Now ... can the day be far behind when an elected official, when asked about his or her religion, declare boldly: "I am an ATHEIST." I do truly hope to see that day happen ... and soon.
I want to see more progress than that. I want to see the day when the question isn't even asked. I want to see the question itself to be seen as rude and prying, and thought of as irrelevant to the elected official's job. But, baby steps.
As far as I'm concerned, all politicians should be required to swear in using the State or U.S. Constitution. Or both. I regard swearing on any religious text as a blatant violation of the Separation of Church and State.
FYI - You can click on the three dots at the right of the field of your comment and edit it, if you have an error or addendum. I've even done that on my phone!
Canadian here, but that's fantastic news for America! Personally, I think there's a lot more politicians who are "nones". Coming out might not be detrimental as they think. We all just want honesty.
I don’t care what religion my government official is, I want competence and diligence at the job that person was elected to do. If their religion completely dictates how they are going to do their job to the point where they can’t fulfill the duties of that job. They should quit and do something that won’t counter their belief system. Religion doesn’t make one moral, it’s the person’s actions and deeds that speak to the character of that person! Jimmy Carter was outstanding person, not because he was religious, because his actions and deeds which spoke volumes about his character.
I proposed a toast to James Earl Carter at the poker table and one person, who is almost 60, did not know that his name was James Earl .. He had only ever heard Jimmy.
“Coming into the sunlight!” Good for them. At least they have made it clear they won’t attend the “prayer circle” led by Bible Humper Johnson. They will make decisions with logic! What a concept!
Good for US, but being a country partly founded by people running from religious prosecution *, there has surprisingly much negativity about those that hold no faith.
*) and built in slavery and suppression of the original inhabitants.
Well, the earliest colonies were purely business ventures, and those who were fleeing persecution were quick to persecute others. It is not surprising that there is hostility to the nonreligious who aren't at least worshipping the dollar.
"Even though we’re just talking about a handful of Congress members, it’s still a pleasant surprise (to learn of two more non-religious legislators)..."
Left or right, religious or non-religious, I no longer care about the labels or what they say about themselves. What I care about is how they treat evidence and actual knowledge of the facts. The GOP/Evangelicals see facts and evidence as the enemy, and they'll try to destroy anyone who tells them the truth, rather than what they want to hear.
Members of congress should answer to these surveys: "My personal religious conviction is a strictly private business and not relevant for exercising my current job, representing ALL my constituents with their different backgrounds".
Agree. How come they are even asked that question?
Demographic analysis.
That would be great. Of course, it will never happen so long as republicans in particular wear their religion on their sleeves and use it as a shield against any criticism that their policies are hurting the poor and the marginalized.
𝐼 𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑛 “𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐,” 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝐶𝑄—𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑!
What I find slightly troubling here is that "agnostic" had to be a write-in option. It would be interesting to see the full list of options that CQ actually offered. It's as though when they ask the religion question, they assume that there must be one, from a list of "approved" religions.
Agreed. It gives one to wonder whether those who formulated the survey are a bit twitchy about alternative belief systems or the lack thereof. It may be that, as more "nones" find their way into public office, that the list of choices may perforce have to be expanded just a tittle bit!
Looking at the Roll Call article, Randall had to actively tell them to list her as "none" instead of being labeled as "did not answer".
Why the religion question at all? I mean, whose damn business is it anyway???
Well, as long as "Christian = Good" in the minds of so many Americans, the religion question will continue to be asked. I agree that it should be no one's business. To give you an example, I once asked my brother, a pastor, if, given the choice between two candidates, one whose political views matched his own but was openly atheist and one who whose political views were the opposite but was a devout Christian, which one he would vote for. He replied that he probably wouldn't vote.
Tell him he’s why Trump will be re-infesting the White House on three weeks.
"so many Americans" North, Central and South Americans. The MAGAs love it.
Happy New Year!
Hmph. Not a good indicator of the quality of that survey at all.
Perhaps their question wasn't "What religion, is any, do you follow," but "Which of these religions is yours?"
UGH!!! 🤢🤮
1.) Catholic
2.)Evangelist
3.) other.
Far too many Americans are indoctrinated from birth to equate religiosity with morality, in spite of the fact the two things, while not mutually exclusive, have little to do with each other. What the religious communities do not teach is the history of what religious people acting in the name of their religion have done to their fellow humans.
They don't teach that because if they did, their congregants wouldn't allow them to keep doing heinous shit.
They get pissy when you inform them of that, and demand answers, and deny the Nazis were christians and claim they were atheists.
Personally, I think leaving the religion space blank is a perfectly acceptable answer in a country with a constitution that prohibits religious tests for public office. I take 'blank' to mean 'none of your business', 'I choose not to answer', or 'f-off.' All acceptable choices. I suspect many of the blankers are actually secular.
While about 1/3 of our population is now non-religious or unaffiliated, sadly, it's still a socially acceptable political cudgel to hit someone with. So, I applaud the trailblazers who are willing to own their non-belief openly. Let's hope courage is contagious.
Exactly my thoughts.
D.A. anecdote: When I was in the USAF (1969-1973) our dogtags had our name, SSN, blood type and religion. In those days there weren't many choices and atheist was definitely not on the list. The best choice was None so that is what I selected. The kicker was that it wasn't phrased as "Religion" but as "Religious preference". Thus "None" had the implication that you were religious but you didn't care which brand....no particular preference, any religion would do. So when I was in sick bay, all the chaplains would take the opportunity to visit. Annoying.
I know that the list has expanded since then but I'll bet the chaplains still try to visit atheists and Nones
Ugh. When I went into the hospital for major surgery in 2000, one of the things the intake clerk asked was about my religious preference. I told her, "None", which in retrospect was a bad answer. This was a county hospital, and various religious hospital ministries had large offices on the first floor. They interpreted my "none" answer as an invitation to come barging into my room at all hours, even when I was sleeping or undergoing treatment. I remember one coming in and peering over a nurse's shoulder when he was cleaning a wound on my upper thigh. I screamed at that "minister" to leave, and he gave me quite a bit of backchat, which I was in no mood to tolerate. I ended up having to buzz the nurses' station several times a day to get rid of those jackasses, because my request to post a note denying them entrance was ignored. Later on, I was told that all "nones" were seen by those ministers as mission fields--potential converts.
I'm in the Bible Belt and the last few times I had surgery, Evangelical pastors tried to visit me in spite of my writing in "Atheist." My wife and I sent them packing with confused looks on their faces. I'm sure they "preyed" for me anyway, but at least I didn't have to see or listen to it.
12 years after the above bad experience I went into a Catholic hospital for further major surgery. That time, I told the intake clerk to write "Atheist" on my paperwork, and specifically to post on my room door that only pre-approved visitors could enter. Worked like kryptonite. They even assigned me a single room, so I wouldn't be bothered by wandering collars!
A Jewish friend ended up in a kkkatlik hospital. She finally had the hospital director in her room to remove the cross on the wall.
I'm a little concerned about becoming a target for door-to-door "witnessing" by the churches those pastors represent. You'd be surprised how bold and persistent the churches are here.
Indeed. They try to get people when they are at their most vulnerable. (Thus hospital and nursing home ministries.) At home, I've made up and practiced a couple of stories about my, er, off-beat beliefs and trot them out as necessary. The looks on their faces when they hear the nonsense that I can spout are fucking priceless. They drag their kids away, and generally don't come back for more.
Yup, that's how the Mormons got a lot of Howard Hughes' money!
Less “most vulnerable” and likely more “unable to escape”.
A few years ago at a VA hospital I told a minister to shove his jesus up his ass and told him I would call security to have him removed. Never bothered by one in subsequent visits.
Do what I do, answer the door naked.
Holding a large meat cleaver and stained head to toe in blood with a psycho smile on your face?
When I had my gallbladder out in March of 2016, I told the interviewing nurse straight-up that I was an atheist, and any preacher coming in to try to proselytize me was in for an interesting time.
I was not disturbed by any such persons! 😁
Mostly they aren't trained to deal with atheists. Or, for that matter, with obscure beliefs (or made-up beliefs.) They expect agreement, docility, especially when we are vulnerable, and we don't gotta give them that.
Not only DON'T I gotta give 'em that, I WON'T. I'm no Matt Dillahunty or Seth Andrews, but I DO know what I'm talking about as it comes to atheism, and I refuse to censor myself!
Indeed. I yell at them also. I don't think these parasites deserve any respect, frankly. I have found out that sometimes mocking them hurts their fee-fees worse, and shuts them up faster, than just cussing them out.
Mostly I just counter their BS with FACTS. They don't like that very much! 😁
The last time I was in a hospital I don’t remember anyone asking me about religion ever during the 4 days I was there. I got there via ambulance at 4 am from a different hospital. No chaplain ever came to see me during my time there. I also don’t remember the first hospital asking me either. It is possible that my bride was with me at the first hospital and told them atheist and that this info was passed along to the second hospital. I frankly have no recollection.
The one thing I remember from after my arrival was that they kept asking me my name and birthday, which is some kind of protocol for making sure they have the right person. I was in excruciating pain from internal bleeding. I was told later that at some point, after I had been asked for this info for the nth time, I said “Won’t somebody write this down?” Which amused the ER staff to no end.
I've had to memorize my Mom's date of birth for all her medical appointments. She can't remember it any more.
I’m sorry to hear that and I’m glad you can be there for her.
I told this the other day, but I'll tell it again. She asked me how old she was, and I said 29. She almost fell over from laughter. : )
(87 is the actual age.)
My dad did have some dementia very late in his life, but he could never resist joking with his docs and nurses when they asked his name and birthday. He'd sometimes say, "The day after Thanksgiving" or "Pearl [Harbor] was a week after my 20th birthday." He hated having to spell his name though (it was a French one, and nobody ever pronounced it correctly) so I got stuck with that part. About 5 years ago, I wrote to the VA to get copies of his service papers from WW2, and found out that all three of his names had been misspelled on his discharge forms, so they'd been misfiled. No wonder dad was so senstive on the topic!
That's a good one! I suspect the ER staff are also asking for your name/birthday as a way of assessing if you are still all there mentally. I remember, before my two surgeries, the staff asking "which hip?" and then marking the correct one on my leg. They *really* don't want to do the wrong side!
Rabid anti-theist workable?
Sure, but a whole lot less fun. Think of it this way: they make shit up. You get to make up better shit.
Wow,I never thought about that. Thanks for the info. If I'm ever in a hospital, I guess I'll just have to lie; I have a very short fuse with religious types these days.
Ooh, the trick is to (a) make shit up *in advance*, don't wait til the last minute or til when you're vulnerable, (b) memorize the fuck out of your story, (c) don't say anything that is checkable (i.e. "I believe in X [made-up deity] from Y [obscure place nobody has ever heard of/you've just made up]. They offered me Z to convert [I listed "a pig and as many coconuts as I could carry."] and (d) Sincerely Want To Share Your Beliefs With Them, the misguided heathens. They won't be able to run away fast enough. The weirder and more sincere the better.
🤣😂❤️
OT: Are you located in the Florida panhandle? Floridian commenters came up in a different sub-thread.
I used to live there until 2017, lived in Georgia for a couple of years, moved back to Florida, then up to Minnesota in early fall 2020 -- THAT was a fun time to move, right in the middle of a pandemic.
Thanks. So it wasn't you that got hit by a hurricane earlier this year. How about a blizzard? : )
Yes, one or two snowstorms since I’ve been here, but nothing compared to the one we got stuck in when we visited Green Bay.
Strange, though, the previous two years, we had snow during winter, but it never stayed more than a few days or a week at most before it retreated back to the shadows and protected areas. I kind of wonder if it’s partly due to the bluffs and the river valley, or of it’s yet another sign of climate change.
As for this year, so far the same; but we still have January and February. Anything can happen.
Natalie got whacked by Milton.
In college, the school sent out cards that you could fill out asking various things about you. It was completely voluntary, and I think it was a way to hook you up with various student organizations that you may be interested in. Majoring in Smartass, I filled out the religion question "Peoples Temple". For the next year or so I regularly got mail from the campus Hillel (https://www.hillel.org/) group. I guess they thought I was Jewish.
KAHLESS THE UNFORGETTABLE! K'PLAGH!
NO REL PREF was on my tags for years.
My experience with Army chaplains runs the spectrum from irrelevant to shitty to great....all depended on the individual.
Sounds like any minister.
Military chaplains are a bit different from civilian ministers in that they're supposed to serve all faith perspectives (including nones). The best of them take that responsibility seriously, the worst push their faith and abuse their rank when doing so.
USNavy about a decade later. Methodist on my dog tag. We only wore them in boot camp. Only saw one chaplain during my hitch and that was a brief orientation check off on a new ship. Never had an extended stay in sick bay.
Eta: I was 17 when I joined. Turned 18 towards the end of bootcamp. I didn't know any better.
The USAF is riddled with evangelicals these days they tell me.
I don't know about the Air Force in general, but its academy is notorious for the proselytism that goes on.
https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/2024/11/mrff-quickly-ends-usaf-group-commanders-dishonest-and-divisive-use-of-spiritual-readiness-for-sectarian-religious-proselytizing/
Not the only one AFAIK.
Mikey is THE MAN, as it comes to religion in the military, and he don't take no shit!
We need a few million more like him everywhere, in all walks of life, not just in the military.
I gave birth to my first kid iat a military has hospital and since my dog tag’s always had Roman Catholic (for my parents, not me) the chaplain kept coming by to pray over us and he left a medal of (iirc) Saint Christopher with us.
At the time, of join the military and later when I had my first baby, I wasn’t practicing any religion but I also wasn’t an atheist yet. The tags were so that my parents could do whatever if anything happened to me. I knew then it didn’t matter how they grieved, I would be dead and they needed the comfort of their religion. Now, I would rather they followed my husband’s wishes if I were going to before them. I am sure they will, my brother’s funeral was nominally not a religious event, though his friend who is a minister was asked to speak god nonsense. Nothing formal though, it was centered on my brother but too godly for me still.
It's been a painfully slow journey, but it seems as though our representative government is at least beginning to resemble our general population and, in particular, the rise of the non-religious. Ms. Randall's and Ms. Ansari's religious declarations as "none" and "agnostic," respectively, are a refreshing indicator that those of us who do not labor under an irrational belief ARE ELECTABLE and indeed, HAVE been elected to public office. I congratulate Ms. Randall and Ms. Ansari for their successful campaigns. I would further suggest that they consider joining the Congressional Freethought Caucus, where they will find people whose thinking is more oriented toward the law than toward religion.
Now ... can the day be far behind when an elected official, when asked about his or her religion, declare boldly: "I am an ATHEIST." I do truly hope to see that day happen ... and soon.
I want to see more progress than that. I want to see the day when the question isn't even asked. I want to see the question itself to be seen as rude and prying, and thought of as irrelevant to the elected official's job. But, baby steps.
"Small moves, Ellie, small moves..."
“Beginning…”. As in, barely. As in “I have the concepts of a plan” after 9 years.
My bride and I have adopted the “concepts” phrase for all sorts of things. “Does the dog need a walk?” “I’ll give her the concept of a walk.”
😄👍🏼
I bet Rand Paul is. He'd say it just to be contrarian, but Kentucky would never elect him again if he did.
2 down, 533 to go.
(I know there are more than 2, but I didn't want to do any more math.)
Well, if you won’t count to 3, you must not be Christian.
If you count past three you're not a kristian.
😂🤣😂😁
As far as I'm concerned, all politicians should be required to swear in using the State or U.S. Constitution. Or both. I regard swearing on any religious text as a blatant violation of the Separation of Church and State.
Agreed. It’s much relevant to the job!
Ugh *more relevant 😬
FYI - You can click on the three dots at the right of the field of your comment and edit it, if you have an error or addendum. I've even done that on my phone!
Oh, right! I forgot! Sorry for wasting everyone’s time lol
Don't even worry about it. Like Captain Steve says, "Now you know!"
I hear it doesn't work on apple tablet or phone.
It works on my iPhone … if I remember to do it! :)
Canadian here, but that's fantastic news for America! Personally, I think there's a lot more politicians who are "nones". Coming out might not be detrimental as they think. We all just want honesty.
“news for America” All of the 36 American countries and their citizens.
God Bless America?
"news for America" Agreed, North, Central, and South America with all 36 American countries.
Happy New Year
“None of your business” seems like another good write in option.
I would never vote for someone based on their religion, but a lack of religion is def a starter.
I have voted against people BECAUSE of their religion they offer up as the solution to every problem.
Tots and pears?
I look for competence to do the job and values that align closest to my own. Lack of religion is a bonus!
I don’t care what religion my government official is, I want competence and diligence at the job that person was elected to do. If their religion completely dictates how they are going to do their job to the point where they can’t fulfill the duties of that job. They should quit and do something that won’t counter their belief system. Religion doesn’t make one moral, it’s the person’s actions and deeds that speak to the character of that person! Jimmy Carter was outstanding person, not because he was religious, because his actions and deeds which spoke volumes about his character.
Carter would've done all he did even if he'd never been religious.
Under "mensch" in the dictionary, it should say: "See Carter, James Earl."
Dang, that reminds me... we lost another James Earl this year, and he was a bloody legend too.
A legend with a voice to match.
Spoke to him once for about 5 minutes. Imagine that voice and that man in a small room. I swooned. He was also very polite.
I proposed a toast to James Earl Carter at the poker table and one person, who is almost 60, did not know that his name was James Earl .. He had only ever heard Jimmy.
Methinks I will toast the former president with a nice dram of Aberlour, some time this evening.
May the memory of the man and his impact on this planet never fade.
Nah, you have to find a can of Billy Beer to toast him with properly.
Yeah, I remember Billy Beer ... but I'll stick with the single-malt. I don't think Jimmy would mind.
That is so true! Unlike a certain orange orc-like vice president Trump (will Trump house sit the White House for his boss president Putin)
“Coming into the sunlight!” Good for them. At least they have made it clear they won’t attend the “prayer circle” led by Bible Humper Johnson. They will make decisions with logic! What a concept!
Good for US, but being a country partly founded by people running from religious prosecution *, there has surprisingly much negativity about those that hold no faith.
*) and built in slavery and suppression of the original inhabitants.
Well, the earliest colonies were purely business ventures, and those who were fleeing persecution were quick to persecute others. It is not surprising that there is hostility to the nonreligious who aren't at least worshipping the dollar.
ah, you said it better! thanks!
They were running to do religious persecution, those Puritans were dicks, and their influence lingers on.
If this keeps up, people from the ruling party will start calling Democrats "godless." Oh wait... they already do.
"Even though we’re just talking about a handful of Congress members, it’s still a pleasant surprise (to learn of two more non-religious legislators)..."
Left or right, religious or non-religious, I no longer care about the labels or what they say about themselves. What I care about is how they treat evidence and actual knowledge of the facts. The GOP/Evangelicals see facts and evidence as the enemy, and they'll try to destroy anyone who tells them the truth, rather than what they want to hear.
What a pessimistic way to view the world.
Unfortunately, you are absolutely correct. Pessimism and disgust are looking to be my most prominent emotions for the foreseeable future.