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    ‘I prefer non-religious’: why so few US politicians come out as atheists

    Non-believers remain few and far between in US politics, with atheism bringing ‘the notion of being anti-religion’, the California representative Jared Huffman explains
    by David Smith in Washington Aug 03, 2019 5 minutes
    Members of the US Congress during a prayer circle on 18 June 2015 in front of the US Capitol to honour those gunned down last night inside a Charleston church. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

    The 2020 presidential election has produced the most diverse field of candidates in history. There are women, people of color and an openly gay man. There are billionaires, socialists and a self-help guru. The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ view of religion is not particularly clear but there are no known atheists.

    Non-believers remain few and far between in American politics. In Congress, the only one to publicly “come out” as such is Jared Huffman, a Democrat representing California’s second district and a leading proponent of impeachment of Donald Trump.

    Huffman announced in late 2017 that he is a humanist, not an atheist. In an interview at his Capitol Hill office, he characterized himself as “non-religious, humanist, spiritual albeit without any particular dogma. I’m a spiritual drifter. ‘Seeker’ would be a perfectly good word, too.”

    Asked how he would define spiritual, Huffman said: “I’m interested in the

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