Fortney Hillman (Pete) Stark Jr.

From Philosopedia

Forntey Hillman "Pete" Stark Jr. (11 November 1931 - )

Stark is the first openly nontheistic member of Congress and has represented California's 13th District since 1973. That district includes portions of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

In a 2007 questionnaire distributed by the Secular Coalition for America (SCA), Stark listed himself as a non-theist.

News items then quoted him as being a

Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being. I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social service.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Start received his B.S. in general engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959 and his M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1960. After serving in the U. S. Air Force, he was a bank executive in Oakland.

Asked by Church and State about his constituents' reaction to his publicly declaring himself as a non-theist, he said it had been positive both within his district and from around the world. Why, he was asked, is he a strong supporter of church-state separation?

Just look to Iraq, where state and various "churches" are one, for your answer.

As for those who disagree with his views,

I hope that those who dislike my philosophy will try and pray us out of Iraq as I try and vote us out.

Democratic Party political strategist Dan Newman wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle (14 March 2007) that a February 2007 USA Today/Gallup poll noted that fewer than half of Americans said they would vote for an atheist candidate for president even if he were "well qualified." In the same poll, 95 percent said they would vote for a similarly qualified Catholic candidate, 92 percent for a Jewish candidate and 72 percent for a Mormon candidate.

Newman says the poll shows that "anti-atheism remains the last remaining prejudice that a majority of Americans don't mind fessing up to," at least to a pollster. And he says the comments by Stark belie "the recent trend which has been in the direction of candidates increasingly wearing their religion on their sleeve.