Holy crap! A Congressman from California just came out.. that is, came out as an atheist. What is this country coming to?!

U.S. Rep. Pete Stark “Comes Out” as an Atheist

“Coming out” as the first openly nontheist member of the United States Congress, Representative Fortney “Pete” Stark (D-CA) quipped, “I’m pleased that I’m in Cambridge and not in Salem!” On September 20, 2007, Congressman Stark spoke publicly for the first time about his atheism to an audience of approximately 300 members of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, the Harvard Law School Heathen Society, and various other atheist, agnostic, secular, humanist, and nonreligious groups. The Boston Globe was also on hand to cover the event.

Stark, who is a Unitarian, is the highest-ranking American politician to openly declare that he is nontheist. Although Stark denies a belief in a god, he was quick to note that the Stark family does recognize a supreme being: Mrs. Stark.

Congressman Stark regaled the audience with anecdotes about his life and his background, noting that he “was born poor enough so that I never slept alone until I was married.” Before running for office, Congressman Stark was a successful bank executive, a member of the U.S. Air Force, and a leader of a Unitarian Universalist seminary. As Stark explained it, he was not at all interested in a supreme being, but was instead interested in people.

When Stark won his congressional seat in 1971, religion simply was not at the forefront of most people’s minds. Religion only surfaced on occasion, he noted, like when his congressional colleagues wanted to have ‘prayer breakfasts’. Religion began to enter the public debate more forcefully in the 1980s, which is, Congressman Stark speculated, when televangelists and politicians discovered that they could use religion to raise money and increase power.