Do any elected officials have the guts NOT to go to church?

Factual Questions
1

I get the impression that a politician, as they climb the political ladder of success sooner or later decides that it would be politically correct to have his/her family become regular church (or synagogue or mosque) goers.

I don’t have any numbers on this at all, but I’m guessing that that a very high percentage of high level politicians are indeed regular church goers as opposed to the Hoi Polloi who probably track around 25-30%.

So, is my guess correct? Are there some Senators or Congressmen who don’t go to church? Have any of them ever gone on record and said “can’t be bothered…” or “I’m an Atheist”?

2

Responding to the thread title rather than the thread contents…

It’s not a matter of “guts”. It’s a matter of being an intelligent politician. Going to church every Sunday gets you more votes than not going to church does.

3

You’d think that wouldn’t work. I mean, if a politician is going to church for the sole purpose of winning votes, isn’t that disrespectful to both the religion and the church? It makes me wonder why tactics like that don’t backfire…

Then I remember that a large number of “regular” people only go to church to socialize and make contacts, anyway.

4

It actually crossed my mind recently that I have noticed the highly public politicians tend to make it well known (or the media makes it well known) when they go to church, pray, etc. You don’t point out if you mean American politicians, as I am sure you do because rumors have circulated that Lionel Jospin, French Prime Minister is an atheist, although it has not been confirmed. It has also been rumored that Jesse “The Body” Ventura is an atheist, but maybe you are not looking for a Navy SEAL/pro wrestler/bad actor turned temporary politician. How about Ted Turner who is involved in politics, but not a politician?
But other than that, I can not really think of any that are openly atheist. Considering a small percentage of the voting public are probably confirmed atheists (came out acknowledging they do not belive in a higher power), it would definitely be a bad career move. Sorry I am not much help!

5

One notable example: Ronald Reagan.

6

What about the big Ron? I don’t recall perfectly, but I believe I remember former President Reagan involved with the church, and quoting the bible a few times in his speeches. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe he didn’t actively go to church, at least not in the public eye, but he didn’t play for the public as much as some other politicians either.

7

You’re pretty much on target. Reagan was religious, but wasn’t a church-goer. This article, consisting of an interview with Paul Kengor, who’s just published a book about Reagan, explores the question a bit more.

8

YES! I was thinking ‘Evil Empire’ when I stated it was in his speeches. He was using that term in a biblical sense. Thank you for the article and thirsting my quest for knowledge.

9

IIRC, Reagan cited security concerns as a reason for not attending services.

10

Why? Well, atheism is a big turn-off. Most people do believe in god, and while I’m not sure on the %s that actually go to church, most people want someone most like them, and will represent their insanely annoying and ridiculously ignorant “family values” one of which is being a god-fearing person.

Oops, sorry. I was just a little biased in there.

11

A smokescreen, since as far as I can determine, he wasn’t a church-goer at any time in his adult life, even when he was just an actor making movies like Bedtime for Bonzo.

12

The religous affiliations of many senators and congresscritters is simply listed as “Protestant”. That often means that they operate the way Reagan did - they claim to be Christian, but do not attend regular services, so they can’t readily be called “Lutheran”, “Presbyterian”, etc. They may be claim to be Christian out of actual belief or a sense of political expediency.

13

Listed where? Is there some central registry where US politicians record their religious affiliation?

14

Joe Lieberman.
Oh wait, you said “synagogue” too. :slight_smile:

I agree with WillGolf and pattern, in a country where 60% say religion is very important to them, and only 34% look favorably on atheism, no politician wants to go against the trend.

15

Informal records are available, probably gleaned from their own bio’s as provided to the press, and so on. Here’s one place:

http://www.yourcongress.com/ProfileLookup.asp

yourcongress.com is a nice mix of information and flippancy. Somehow that sounds familiar …

Although the ages in their profiles are often grossly off. I don’t know why.

16

Oh wait, I get it. They often list a birth YEAR as -YY, instead of an age. Duh.

17

Hmmm. No. In the bad cases they have dates of birth like “2041”. It appears they just got a bunch of dates with 20 instead of 19 in their data, and have negative ages. Double duh.

18

Okay… so we’ve established that it is politically expedient for elected officials to claim that they’re at least on speaking terms with the lord. But back to the OP… which politicians are notable for saying they’re atheists, agnostics, et cet and still get elected?

19

The Almanac of American Politics lists religious affiliations of House and Senate members, presumably from info provided by their offices. I have the 2000 edition here–a quick browse through reveals:

Neil Abercrombie, D-HI, “no religious affiliation”
John Olver, D-MA, likewise
John Tierney, D-MA, likewise
Earl Blumenauer, D-OR, likewise

There are probably others, but I would bet not all that many.

Disclaimer: Don’t know much about any of these folks. I doubt they go around with their lack of religious affiliation on their sleeve, but who knows? Also, don’t know if they are all still in Congress.