TruthBook Religious News Blog

By LAURA MECKLER

WASHINGTON -- In the early days of his administration, President Barack Obama has developed an unusual pattern as he talks about religion: He regularly puts nonbelievers on the same footing as religious Americans.

It is a rare gesture for a U.S. political leader. But what makes Mr. Obama's outreach especially remarkable is that it is accompanied by public displays of faith that sometimes go beyond even those of his religiously oriented predecessor in the White House.

Mr. Obama speaks easily about his own faith. White House events, even those without a religious theme, often begin with a prayer. And the president said he would expand President George W. Bush's outreach to faith-based organizations.

At the same time, he has taken a series of policy steps that are troubling to religious conservatives, and pledged that decisions in his administration would be governed by science. He reversed Bush policies on funding for international family-planning groups and stem-cell research, and he has moved to rescind regulations that allow health-care workers to opt out of duties that offend their beliefs.

Mr. Obama acknowledged nonbelievers on the campaign trail last year, and, notably, in his inaugural address, where he said: "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers."

While nonbelievers welcomed Mr. Obama's recognition, the move could make some people uneasy. Americans are less comfortable with atheists than they are with many other minority groups, according to a 2006 University of Minnesota study. Nearly half of those surveyed said they would disapprove if their child wanted to marry an atheist, versus a third who said the same of a Muslim. People were more accepting of homosexuals, conservative Christians, immigrants, Hispanics and Jews.

A 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., found that 15% of Americans are unaffiliated with any religion, up from 8.2% in 1990. In 2008, only 0.7% identified themselves as atheists and 0.9% said they are agnostic.

Mr. Obama isn't the first president to acknowledge nonbelievers. When running for re-election, Bill Clinton spoke of the U.S. having more religious freedom than any other country in the world, "including the freedom not to believe." At the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, George W. Bush recognized those with "no faith at all" among Americans of varying religions.

But Mr. Obama's frequent mentions of nonbelievers stand out, said Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist who studies religion and culture. In some ways, says Mr. Lindsay, it represents the continuation of a pattern in American public discourse. "The last 50 years has been a gradual evolving notion of what constitutes religious diversity," he said. First, he said, Jews were included. Later, after immigration increased from Asia in the 1960s, politicians began mentioning Buddhism and Hinduism. But rarely have atheists been included, he said.

Part of the explanation for Mr. Obama's references also may lie with his own story. He wasn't raised religious and only became a Christian as an adult, when working with churches as an organizer in Chicago.

"I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist; and grandparents who were nonpracticing Methodists and Baptists; and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even though she was the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known," he said at National Prayer Breakfast in February. "She was the one who taught me as a child to love and to understand and to do unto others as I would want done."

Labels: faith, freedom, non-believer, President Obama, religion

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