From Salon: http://www.salon.com/2013/08/05/barney_franks_atheist_triumph/
When will more politicians let go of God?
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
Monday, Aug 5, 2013
Barney Frank has always been a trailblazer. The outspoken 73-year-old former Democratic congressman first publicly came out of the closet back in 1987, back when being honest about your orientation was considered political suicide. And now, he’s done it again. Though he has in the past described himself as “a left-handed gay Jew,” over the weekend he refined that definition.
The updated status came via Bill Maher’s “Real Time,” after Maher asked Frank if he felt more liberated being out of Congress. “Absolutely,” Frank replied. “I don’t have to worry that when the phone rings it’s somebody who’s screwed something up and says it’s my responsibility to unscrew it.” Maher lobbed back that Frank had already enjoyed a degree of public immunity from criticism, noting, “You could come on this show and sit next to a pot-smoking atheist.” Frank then waved a finger between the two of them and asked, “Which pot-smoking atheist were you talking about here?” to the cheers of the crowd. Frank went on to express his disappointment that he wasn’t appointed to the open Senate seat in Massachusetts, because he “was looking forward to having my husband, Jim, hold the Constitution, not the Bible, and affirm, not swear, that I was going to be a wonderful senator.”
Frank’s admissions aren’t exactly bombshells. His tacit acknowledgment of some pot smoking, for example, should surprise no one familiar with his record of urging reform for the current drug laws. In the past, he and Ron Paul have teamed up to end the federal ban on marijuana and to respect Colorado’s possession policy “because of our belief in individual freedom.” And for a liberal politician who’s represented Massachusetts to cop to atheism isn’t quite the bombshell it would be if, say, Rick Santorum suddenly went all Christopher Hitchens.
Nevertheless, Frank’s candor is yet another much-needed step in normalizing atheism in a country that still frequently takes the Judeo-Christian model as the default. It reminds people, and not just the uppity Bill Maher demographic either, that we don’t all believe the same things. One-fifth of all Americans have no religious identity – and that number is even higher among young people. And in a nation that was founded on the ideal of separating church and state, on keeping God firmly out of government, why should a politician ever be asked to swear to anything on a Bible anyway?
Continue reading at: http://www.salon.com/2013/08/05/barney_franks_atheist_triumph/
