Agnostic, Atheist Votes Matter in November

Part of this article was adapted from Ronald Aronson's Living Without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists and the Undecided (Counterpoint).

As the fading Bush presidency is being greeted with indifference or rolling eyes, one might expect eight years of faith in the White House to have discredited religion in the public square for years to come. But after a generation of the religious right, America is not yet ready to move on to a sensible public understanding of religion. The electrifying arrival of Sarah Palin on the national scene demonstrates the continuing vigor of conservative Christianity and the political power of religiosity.

What about the Democrats' approach? In their hands this troubling trend may be softer and sweeter, but there is great danger that religion will continue to invade public life in unacceptable ways. It's not just that Democrats are courting the evangelical vote; they are treating secularists as if they are invisible and have acquiesced to the twenty-first-century "religious test" for public office. They seem blithely willing to undermine our constitutional commitment to the separation of church and state.

In his 2006 speech "Call to Renewal" Barack Obama struck an ambiguous chord, paying homage to the separation of church and state while insisting that religion must not be left "at the door before entering into the public square." He set out what seemed to be a reassuringly sophisticated path for bringing religion into politics:

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