Huffman is an ungodly rare thing in Congress: a nonbeliever

By Joe Garofoli

Rep. Jared Huffman recently did something radical for a member of Congress: The San Rafael Democrat revealed publicly that he doesn’t believe in God.

To put that in context, coming out as a nonbeliever is more rare than coming out as a nonheterosexual — there are seven LGBTQ members in the reality-challenged zone known as “Congress.”

These days, 91 percent of legislators identify as Christian. That makes Congress “about as Christian today as it was in the early 1960s,” according to a Pew Research study done earlier this year, and unlike the America of 2017, where 70 percent of people are Christian and 23 percent are, to use the clinical term, “unaffiliated.” Former East Bay Rep. Pete Stark is believed to be the only other out nonbeliever in congressional history.

Huffman wants to be clear he doesn’t hate religion — far from it. He was tapped to be a leader in the offshoot of Mormonism he grew up in, and eventually left. His wife and kids regularly attend Catholic Mass. After Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot during practice for a congressional baseball game in June, Huffman joined other Democrats in a prayer for their wounded colleague. He said he is somewhat envious of the community that many religious people enjoy through their shared bonds.

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