Australia's New Leader Is An Atheist: Americans, Don't Try This At Home!
Australia's New Leader Is An Atheist: Americans, Don't Try This At Home!
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06...dont-try-this/
17 hours ago
When Julia Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister last
week she quickly earned international headlines and received a
congratulatory call from President Obama for her accomplishment.
Now it turns out she's broken another barrier that, for American
voters at least, would be far more daunting than her gender: She
doesn't believe in God.
"No, I don't," she told an interviewer at Australia's national radio,
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) who asked her point blank if she
believed in God. "I'm not a religious person."
"I was brought up in the Baptist Church, but during my adult life
I've, you know, found a different path. I'm of course a great
respecter of religious beliefs, but they're not my beliefs."
Gillard was a studious Christian as a child, winning prizes for
catechism lessons and for memorizing Bible verses. But, she noted,
"I've made decisions in my adult life about my own views."
The new Australian P.M. is known for her razor-sharp debating skills
and direct answers to direct questions, and that was also evident in
her interview with ABC radio in Melbourne about her religion, or lack
of it.
"I am not going to pretend a faith I don't feel," she said, according
to the audio. "And for people of faith the greatest compliment I could
pay to them is to respect their genuinely held beliefs and not to
engage in some pretense about mine. I think it's not the right thing."
It's hard to imagine any U.S. politician saying such a thing about
religion, or being so straightforward about most anything.
Our pols have their reasons, of course. Polls consistently show that
even as Americans grow increasingly comfortable with voting for women,
racial or religious minorities, or a homosexual, they are still not
likely to back an atheist.
The latest Gallup poll on that question, posed in 2007, showed that 53
percent of American voters said they would not vote for an atheist for
president -- the highest negatives of any of the categories. (Gallup
has not asked about a Muslim candidate, and odds are that would score
even lower. Cold comfort for atheists.) Some 43 percent said they
would not vote for a homosexual candidate, and 55 percent said they
would be willing to back a gay or lesbian for president.
In 2007, the Secular Coalition for America offered a $1,000 prize to
anyone who could guess the name the "highest level atheist, agnostic,
humanist or any other kind of non-theist currently holding elected
public office in the United States." California's Pete Stark, a
19-term Democratic House member from the Bay Area, proved to be the
correct answer, as he acknowledged he is "a Unitarian who does not
believe in a Supreme Being."
But it's not like he created a rush on atheist candidates, and of
course in the next year the victorious contender for president was
Barack Obama, probably the most overtly religious Democratic candidate
in years.
Julia Gillard, on the other hand, was able to say that she shared the
values of her fellow Australians, if not their religious beliefs.
"What I can say to Australians broadly of course is that I believe you
can be a person of strong principle and values from a variety of
perspectives. And I've outlined mine to you."
And that seems to be working. An online poll at The Australian
newspaper showed that two-thirds of the nearly 15,000 readers who
responded to a question about Gillard's beliefs said they didn't care
about her "lack of a religious faith."
Filed Under: Barack Obama, Religion, Polls, 2012 President, Culture,
Disputations, 2010 Elections
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