Congress and religion

[lordsummerisle]

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/06/nearly-a-quarter-of-americans-are-not-religious-why-doesnt-that-diversity-show-up-in-politics/

I remember on DU a few years ago there was a thread about how there were still a handful of states where you had to profess a belief in God in order to qualify to run for any state-wide or national office...

[rurallib]

1. I think many states have such laws on the books

but the SCOTUS ruled all such laws were unconstitutional. States and lower governmental units are bad at clean up.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Jan 2016: 51% of Americans would be less likely to vote for an atheist presidential candidate

http://www.pewforum.org/2016/01/27/religion-and-other-candidate-traits/

65% of Republicans, 41% of Democrats.

And just saying they don't follow any religion in particular would be enough for an opposing candidate to leap on that and accuse them of being an atheist. That's a lot to overcome (and only 6% say they'd be more likely to vote for them), and so they stay in the closet.

[rug]

3. Politicians are rarely known for their courage.