Hey, a president finally mentioned me! (list of religions)

[Rodgers01]

I, too, thought it was great that Obama included non-believers in the list. (And thanks, TimeWinder, for pointing out that Bush said similar things – I didn’t know, and hadn’t expected it.)

Anyways, I was stunned to read that some people actually booed this part. Via Andrew Sullivan:

It’s just one anecdote, but: I stood with mostly African-Americans during the speech and the only time I ever heard booing of Obama, from many directions, was his shout-out to “non-believers.”

Was this a common reaction, or was this isolated? I don’t know what correlation (if any) Sullivan is making with African-Americans here (if I had to picture any people who would boo “non-believers” it would probably be white evangelicals) but is there a particular hostility towards atheists in the African-American community??

[What_Exit]

@Marley23

A very surprising and very pleasing moment. Another one of Obama’s nice outreaches.
I’m amazed Hindus consider Judaism part of the big three, since they outnumber Jews by about 50 to 1!

But in America I think Jews run 2nd (at least in power and influence) after the dozens of Christians sects. Some might still split Catholics out as we are only 48 years removed from that still be a major issue is politics.

@The_Flying_Dutchman

I’ll bet we’ll see a open homosexual president before we’ll se a declared atheist president.
Do we even know of a declared atheist senator or congressman ?

Some say Jefferson and possible even Monroe were. John Quincy Adams’ religion was Unitarianism and apparently he was in no way devout or religious and may well have been agnostic or atheist. His father was Unitarian but appeared to believe in God, at least more openly. There might be others, these are the ones I am most familiar with. We have no idea what Lincoln was but he never joined a church though he did attend a Presbyterian Church while President.

I just recalled that Andrew Johnson was also non-church going at least.

BTW: Beware the Quakers, we’ve only had to and they were Nixon and Hoover. :eek:

I’m amazed that no one has mentioned the ommission of Buddhists.

I assume it is unreasonable to expect him to itemize every religion separately. Beside Buddhists don’t seem to cause world troubles for the sake of their religion. You know “Mostly Harmless.”

[Dangerosa]

@What_Exit

I just recalled that Andrew Johnson was also non-church going at least.

BTW: Beware the Quakers, we’ve only had to and they were Nixon and Hoover. :eek:

Four Unitarians, but all prior to the “Unitarians not generally self identifying as Christians” thing:

John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Millard Fillmore
William Howard Taft

(Unitarians often claim Jefferson, who professed Unitarian beliefs - but Jefferson is somewhat of an unclassifiable case.)

Lincoln, A. Johnson, and Jefferson have no religious affiliation.

Adherents - technology and environmental policy to education

[Acsenray]

@Ro0sh

It’s more a focus on Christianity, Judaism, and now more recently Islam.

Yeah, before people started including Islam, the list often went “Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish …”

[Troy_McClure_SF]

Because sometimes we just love upholding stereotypes, one of the biggest cheers of the morning here at San Francisco Civic Center was the “non-believer” line. (The other two biggest were “Congratulations, Mr. President.” and at about 4 minutes past teh hour “technically, Bush’s presidency ended at noon.”)