Losing my religion
National Religious Freedom Day is observed on January 16, the anniversary of the adoption of Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom. The statute, which began simply as Bill №82, “A Bill For establishing religious freedom,” was adopted in 1786. It was penned by Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson and guided to passage by James Madison, who later incorporated Jefferson’s ideas into the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
– from the Bill of Rights ratified December 15, 1791
While the precise meaning of “establishment” is debated, it is easily documented that, from the framer’s earliest conception, religious freedom was intended to protect the religious and irreligious alike against coercion, persecution, and discrimination. During debate in the Virginia legislature, an amendment to Bill №82 was proposed to specifically reference Jesus Christ. In his autobiography, Jefferson later recounted: “The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every Denomination.”
Jefferson argued bluntly against government interventions to endorse religious views, writing “that all attempts to influence [religion] by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness.” He went on, “Religion tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it.”
Finally, he concluded “And though we well know that this Assembly… have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies… and that therefore to declare this act [to be] irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind….” These are clearly the ideas and words of the Enlightenment.
“The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that is it impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.”
– Alexis de Tocqueville
In his seminal critique of American democracy published in 1835, Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville was especially impressed by Americans’ relationship with religion. “Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.” Despite the intent of the founders to separate church from state and to differentiate natural from civil rights, Americans inextricably bound the two together.
Tocqueville gives this account of a court case in New York, where a judge refused to admit the testimony of a witness who had declared that he did not believe in God on the ground that the witness’s admission had preemptively destroyed all confidence of the court:
The New York Spectator of August 23rd, 1831, relates the fact in the following terms: “The court of common pleas of Chester county (New York), a few days since rejected a witness who declared his disbelief in the existence of God. The presiding judge remarked, that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction of all testimony in a court of justice: and that he knew of no case in a Christian country, where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief.”
Just 40 years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the fundamental principles of liberty in an enlightened society remained at odds with a deeply religious populous. Even now, seven states have language in their constitutions explicitly prohibiting atheists from holding office. Mississippi’s constitution, for example, states that “No person who denies the existence of a Supreme Being shall hold any office in this state.” And the constitution in an eighth state, Pennsylvania, states, “No person who acknowledges the being of a God and a future state of rewards and punishments shall, on account of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or profit under this Commonwealth.” While atheists aren’t prohibited from holding office, they aren’t granted similar protections as believers.
Superseded by Article 6 of the US Constitution, which states that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States,” and subsequent Supreme Court rulings, including Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), which supported the appointment of an atheist as notary public in Maryland, these provisions are no longer of any legal effect. Individual cases, nonetheless, have periodically cited these bans (unsuccessfully) to challenge individuals from holding office.
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”
– Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher (4BCE — 65CE)
According to Pew Research Center, of the more than 530 House members in the current Congress, 88% identify as Christian. Jews comprise another 6%. While about 4% are unknown, only two people don’t identify openly with any mainstream religion — Rep. Jared Huffman, a Californian Democrat who identifies as a “humanist” and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who describes herself as religiously unaffiliated. Neither identifies specifically as being an atheist.
If it’s true that only 81 percent of Americans now say they believe in God, why aren’t there more non-believers in Congress? One reason may be electability. Suspicion of atheists is socially accepted in most circles. A 2019 Gallup survey found that fewer than two-thirds of voters would be willing to back an otherwise qualified atheist for high office. A 2014 Pew survey found Americans would be more willing to vote for a presidential candidate who had never held office before, or who had extramarital affairs, than for an atheist.
“Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.”
– Alexis de Tocqueville
While America is not a Christian nation, it can certainly feel like it is. In every cultural and media context, we’re confronted with Christian imagery, references, and attitudes. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in American sports, including the NFL, where the tagline “PRAY FOR DAMAR” is trending literally everywhere. Following the on-field collapse of Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin, players and fans began praying at games and vigils across the country. On ESPN, the analyst Dan Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, interjected on the live broadcast that “it’s just on my heart that I want to pray.” Then, he bowed his head, closed his eyes, and prayed — on the air. On the air.
This appears to be a moment that the movement for public religious observance has been waiting for. “God has been setting up something like this to happen,” asserted Jason Romano, media director at Sports Spectrum, a publication that covers the intersection of sports and Christian faith. While such displays are often criticized for running afoul of the establishment clause, a spontaneous movement like this is difficult to stop. It’s neither state-sanctioned nor occurring exclusively on public property.
Undoubtedly, it can be uncomfortable for the irreligious or other non-Christians to feel socially pressured into such demonstrations, but there’s very little the Courts or anyone else can do about it. And a religion that is fundamentally based on evangelism is unperturbed.
Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray on the field after his team’s games, regardless of his position as coach and regardless of how his players might feel pressured to join. In his ruling for the majority, Justice Gorsuch confirmed that the coach’s prayers were protected by the First Amendment. “Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic — whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head,” he wrote. These rights to worship anywhere, anytime, and in any manner supersede any rights others may have to be free from pressure to participate, even on public property.
“When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion.”
– Abraham Lincoln
This is not a Christian nation, and there is no requirement that anyone follow Christianity to fully participate in American society. But depending upon the context, the pressure to do so can be immense. My personal religious journey has been a winding one. My parents were lapsed Catholics. I was raised as a Lutheran. For a short time after my confirmation, I became swept up in the social aspects of my church until I finally found myself at a Christian music concert, feeling suddenly awkward, self-conscious, and out of place, at which point I left and never looked back.
In college, I came across the Unitarian church in a Jacksonian America history class. This made an impression that stayed with me until a few years later, I was living on my own and decided to visit my local congregation. I liked it very much, particularly the honest ambivalence about the religious aspects of the whole thing. Most congregants seemed to have a decidedly humanist bent, that is, a focus on our responsibility to lead ethical lives that contribute to the greater good of humanity — irrespective of a belief in God. Many humanists do believe in God, but by some estimates, more than two-thirds are atheists.
After meeting my wife, who is culturally Jewish but neither religious nor observant, I left the Unitarian church. Since then, we have raised our children with a cultural Jewish identity but without a strong religious one. Preparing for their bar and bat mitzvot, they studied God as a character in the Old Testament stories — without expressing any belief in a divine being.
Religion didn’t play a large role in my upbringing. And I don’t recall any of my high school friends or classmates being especially religious at the time. Since graduating high school and leaving the South, however, I can see on social media that many of them are now openly religious. Whether it’s to request prayers for a sick family member, to provide evidence that God is good, or to oppose what they see as the war on Christmas, they are out and proud of their relationship with God. This is all fine for them. It really is. But I often wonder why it needs to be so public, why does it need to invade civic life? Why should it guide public policy?
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others…. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
— Matthew 6:5–6
I have spent my adult life defining my own identity, much of which has separated me from the place and people I grew up with. From my politics to where I live, I feel like an outsider. My family has also become more religious than when I was young. More than one family member have even had believers’ baptisms. But through all of this, I still haven’t really said out loud that I am an atheist. It’s a very difficult thing to say in America.
“I’m an atheist and that’s it. I believe there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.”
– Katharine Hepburn
Some atheists actually refer to this process as coming out, since it can bring up feelings of guilt, shame, and otherness. But if the Me Too movement taught us anything, it’s the importance of speaking up and owning our experiences and our complete identities. It’s important to step up and be counted.
In response to the recent spate of Supreme Court opinions favorable to the religious right, Washington Post columnist Kate Cohen urged readers to speak out against faith-based policy making. No matter where you fall in the abortion debate, for instance, legislation governing human health and wellbeing should be based on what’s best for human health and wellbeing, not because, in Greg Abbott’s words, “Our Creator endowed us with the right to life.”
Most important, Cohen wrote, “Tell someone you’re an atheist. Start with yourself if you need to. Tell your spouse, your kids, your parents, your pastor, your political representatives. And if pollsters come calling, definitely tell them.”
So here it is. I am an atheist. And if you are, too, you are not alone.
