I found this curious. On Tuesday The Wall Street Journal (pg A24) reported the following Gallup Organization poll results. (Obviously topical due to Sen. Lieberman’s nod as the first Orthodox Jew on a major party presidential ticket.)
The following percentages represent “yes” responses to the poll question. The years cited after each response are 1958, 1978 & 1999.
If qualified, would you vote for. . .
A Jew: 62%, 82%, 92%
A Catholic: 67%, 91%, 94%
A woman: 54%, 76%, 92%
An Atheist: 18%, 40%, 49%
Are you the one of two people who believes Atheists do not have the right stuff to be our nation’s leader? Why is a god figure necessary to earn a vote?
This should probably be in Great Debates, but what the hell.
Since a lot people associate godliness and the profession of faith with a “moral” person, an athiest would be seen to be slightly unsavory and un-moral. IIRC, Lincoln, who denied the divinity of Christ, was urged by his aides to stick God references into his speeches to give the impression that he was a Christian, god-fearing man. Politicians give professions of faith and Bible references to give the impression that they’re honest and trustworthy. Surely, a man of God wouldn’t steer us wrong, would he?
A lot of people think of atheists as anti-theists. Although religion should not play a part in the election process, people are not likely to vote for someone whom they fear might persecute them if elected. I would not be terribly surprised to learn that there have been some high ranking political figures who have claimed a religion in name only just to make voting for them a more palatable experience for the faithful masses.
You have GOT to be kidding! Ever watch any of those fundimentalist types on television? They are “men of God” yet do everything in their power to seperate god fearing people from their money.
Personally I wouldn’t have a problem with an Athiest being President. After all, isn’t the seperation of Church and State written down somewhere, like the U.S. Constitiution?
Are you serious? 49% of Americans would vote for an atheist? That’s much higher than I would have expected for the most reviled minority in America. Of course, you have to wonder how many of those who answered yes actually would…
When BIll Clinton was exposed (pun intended) as a philanderer, one of the lines was, “this man is the moral leader of our country, how can he do this?” Well, hell if I would accept or even expect moral guidance from the President of the United States! I guess I feel that anyone who would take that job and still feel like s/he could be true to any religious ideals is setting her/himself up as a hypocrite. With issues like the death penalty, war, abortion, etc., out there, there’s no way a truly religious person could remain true to moral precepts and represent the will of the people. While laws tend to be in line with some Judeo-Christian principles, they come down to the rights of people (murder is illegal as the ultimate in civil rights violations, not because God said so.) As the citizenry’s sense of morality changes and they want their president to represent them, s/he may have to compromise personal religious convictions. I’m counting on the views expressed elsewhere on this board that atheists do have a system of morals and wouldn’t see why they couldn’t lead the country in secular matters.
Jefferson is now considered by some historians to be a deist; he believed in a Creator, but felt that God did not watch over or intervene in the affairs of lowly humans. He went so far as to create his own “revised edition” of the Bible which excluded all miracles. That’s not atheism, but it is certainly tempered with a large amount of the stuff of which some atheists are made.
And while we’re at it, Van Buren and Harding were notorious drunks, Chester Arthur was a near-criminal machine politician, Buchanan may have been gay, F. Roosevelt was handicapped, and Colin Powell looks like he could skip into the White House whenever he wants, despite his being black.
None of the presidents abovementioned fully concealed these “shortcomings” prior to taking office, although all tried. I would argue instead that rumors about these people were ignored in light of the qualities they had. Americans have been picking from bad presidential candidates for over two centuries now. I’d guess that right now, if confronted with the choice, Americans would pick a gay atheist black woman over a heterosexual protestant white man, if the issues were clearly known.
I don’t even think an atheist would run. Look at all the crap Lieberman has to deal with during interviews, and speeches. Now imagine that you’re running and they don’t just ask you if you’ll be in the office on Saturday, but every freaking interviewer asks “So what stops you from going out and shooting people or eating babies?”. I mean, just think of all the huge debates over in GD about atheist morality, and trying to distill that into 5 second sound bites. Nope, too much hassle, its not worth it.
If a question like that were posed, that would imply that theists believe that God is the only thing holding them back from eating babies and dancing naked on tabletops. That’s a wee bit too dependent, IMO.
If I remember what I read about Presidents’ religious beliefs correctly with regard to Franklin Pierce, I think you’re about 232 years too late: try 1852. (1856 doesn’t work; Breckinridge was a churchgoer.)
Jesse Jackson is talking to God. He says to god, there are some many repressed people, can you tell me some of the future. God thinks it over and says ask your questions. Jesse doesn’t want to jump right into it so he asks "God will there ever be a Jewish president? God says “Not in your lifetime Jesse” Next Jesse ask "Well how about a woman, will we ever have a woman president? God says “Not in your lifetime Jesse” So Jesse goes for the big one, "how about blacks, will a black person ever be president? There’s a pause then God says "Not in my lifetime Jesse. :rolleyes:
It’s likely we’ve already had a few athiests in the white house. I’m sure there have been several presidents who really weren’t all that theistic, but played the game to get elected. (Perhaps I should say “prayed the game”).
