美國公眾推選出的頭銜最高的無神論長官-FREMONT - Rep. Pete Stark

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Posted on Sat, Mar. 17, 2007email thisprint this
Contest reveals lawmaker from Fremont does not believe in God
Rep. Stark's admission makes him country's highest-ranking nontheist elected official
By Matthew Artz
MEDIANEWS STAFF
FREMONT - Rep. Pete Stark believes in democracy and free speech -- but not in God.

Stark, who says he's "a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being," is the first member of Congress -- and the highest-ranking elected official in the country -- to do so.

The 18-term Fremont Democrat's beliefs became public after the Secular Coalition for America offered a $1,000 prize to the person who nominated the highest-ranking public official who does not believe in God.

Of the 47 nominees, Stark was one of only four to acknowledge that he was a nontheist -- a grouping that includes atheists, agnostics and other types of secular humanists.

The next highest-ranking elected official was a Berkeley school board president, said Lori Lipman Brown, the coalition's director.

"We hope that this will help break stereotypes that one needs to believe in a supreme being to lead an ethical and exemplary life," she said.

Stark was featured in a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's Washington Post, paid for by the American Humanist Association.

Although about 10 percent of people in the United States are atheist or agnostic, Brown said, politicians have nothing to gain by casting their lot with them.

A Gallup poll published last month found that only 45 percent of Americans would support an atheist for president. Gays garnered 55 percent and Mormons 72 percent.

Former state Assemblyman John Dutra of Fremont said he might not back Stark next year if he's an atheist.

"I would think long and hard before I would vote for anyone who lacks any kind of religious conviction," he said.

Still, even Stark's most recent challenger for the 13th Congressional District seat, George Bruno, didn't think that the congressman's beliefs would imperil his standing in a district that spans the left-leaning East Bay shoreline from Fremont to Alameda.

"I wouldn't have made it an issue," said Bruno, who garnered just less than 25 percent of the vote last year.

Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman said he still supports Stark. "If his performance in Congress stays the same, I don't have to worry about anything else."

Stark said he "wasn't raised religiously at all." While studying at Berkeley, though, he became a Unitarian Universalist -- a creedless faith that welcomes believers and nonbelievers -- and later joined the board of directors at the Graduate Theological Union.

"Within any group of Unitarians, you find far-ranging philosophies," he said in an interview Tuesday. "That's what makes it interesting to me."

Religion has rarely come up in his 35 years in public office, Stark said.

"Maybe when I'm campaigning, someone will ask me if I'm a Christian," he said. "I say, 'No.'"

"I don't know what relevance my opinion on a supreme being would have on Medicare policy," he continued. "I suppose, if you believe in faith healers."

Several of Stark's constituents, however, were troubled by his lack of religious faith.

"I'm not saying he's not a good man," said Sarabjit Cheema of the Sikh temple in Fremont. "But for one of our representatives to say he doesn't believe in God, for me it's upsetting."

But Kevin Hom, associate pastor at the evangelical Fremont Community Church, didn't think Stark's beliefs were a big deal.

"I commend him for being public about his real feelings," he said.

"It shouldn't matter to anybody," said Arun Thakel, who works at the Hindu Temple in Fremont.

At Berkeley's Unitarian Universalist church, Music Director Lauren Renee Hotchkiss applauded Stark for being honest. "A lot of people are very closeted about that," she said.

Stark said he was surprised by how much attention his beliefs were getting.

"I just checked a box on this form," said Stark, who already had gotten hundreds of e-mails on the matter as of Tuesday.

"So far, they've all been favorable," he said. "Maybe that will change if someone makes an issue out of it."

Reach Matthew Artz of the Fremont Argus at [e-mail].