For the first time anyone can remember, a major party candidate for federal office has come out as an atheist. Wynne LeGrow posted a diary at the big orange about his candidacy for congress in Virginia’s fourth congressional district.
Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) recently (2007) admitted that he is an atheist, but he has been in office since 1972, so it was not an issue in his election. Plus Stark is in CA, not VA. No doubt there are others, but they don’t have the courage to come out.
I have done a quick survey of atheist/secularist/humanist websites, and curiously, only one (The Center for Inquiry) has covered this story. Atheist complain a lot about government officials and candidates being unwilling to admit when they are non-believers, so why the lack of coverage? Weird.
As an atheist, it certainly makes me happy that a candidate does have the courage to admit his non-belief. However, I am extremely curious to see how this turns out. Will his declaration of non-belief doom his candidacy? Is he opening himself up to bigotry and stupidity? Does this unnecessarily shift the focus off of the issues? Or is this a step in the right direction? Will he be able to effectively counter the stupidity and expose the bigotry for what it is and turn a potential political liability into a strength?
What do you think?
