Open atheism has been nearly disqualifying for US political office.

Evidence

On March 12, 2007, long-time congressman Pete Stark, Democrat from California, made history. He did not author a far-reaching legislation that created jobs, cleaned the air, or shaped foreign policy. He made American history by openly declaring that he does not believe in a God or gods. He thus became the first member of the US Congress to “come out” as an atheist. In 2012, Stark lost to fellow Democrat Eric Swalwell Jr., who publicly attacked Stark’s atheism. According to the Secular Coalition of America, in a country of more than 300 million, he has been the first, and possibly the only member of Congress who was on record as an atheist. The organization claims there are 26 other members ofCongress who are closet atheists or agnostics. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 228

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Direct evidence for the reader’s broader argument about why open apostasy/trampling was such a devastating public act — atheism is uniquely stigmatized among US identity categories in politics.
• SHARE: A concrete data point worth sending to someone tracking religion-and-politics polarization.

Related

• Being an openly atheist American politician is electoral poison (similarity 0.93)