Atheism hasn't hurt Fremont Rep. Stark

Congressman Pete Stark talks with community members in Alameda during a town hall meeting he held at Amelia Earhart Elementary School in Alameda, CA on 3/17/07. Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Pete Stark (cq) the source less Congressman Pete Stark talks with community members in Alameda during a town hall meeting he held at Amelia Earhart Elementary School in Alameda, CA on 3/17/07. Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Pete Stark (cq) the ... more Photo: Mike Kepka Photo: Mike Kepka Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Atheism hasn't hurt Fremont Rep. Stark 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

2007-03-17 14:35:00 PDT NEWARK -- Atheism might be the last political taboo, but it doesn't seem to have hurt Rep. Pete Stark in his East Bay district.

In town hall meetings in Newark and San Leandro today, the 35-year congressional veteran received only cheers and applause when a speaker brought up a survey this week that named Stark as the highest-ranking politician in America who was willing to admit he doesn't believe in God.

Stark waved away any suggestion that he was being courageous when he described himself to the Secular Coalition for America, an association of atheist and humanist groups, as "a Unitarian who does not believe in a Supreme Being."

"It's not courageous to make a simple statement about personal beliefs," he told about 70 people at the San Leandro City Hall. "What is courageous is to stand up in Congress and say, 'Let's tax the rich and give the money to poor kids.' Now that's courageous."

Since the survey results were released, Stark has been bombarded by letters, phone calls and e-mails, and almost all thanked him for making his position public.

The response astounded the 75-year-old Stark, a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who's received plenty of nasty mail over the years.

"The attention is amazing," he said. "I don't know what the guys who put out the press release did, but I'd like to hire their PR person to run my next campaign. I have been inundated (with responses) from literally all over the world."

Of the 500 or so responses Stark has received, all but about 25 them have been supportive. Even those weren't the type of harsh screeds that might be expected on a hot-button topic like religion.

"The negative responses were the most reasoned and reasonable I've ever received," he said. "In this instance, the people who have disagreed with me have been polite and reasonable. All in all, this has been a pleasurable experience."

But Stark's casual admission of disbelief was an important moment for local atheists. Chuck Cannon of Concord compared Stark to civil rights heroine Rosa Parks for his willingness to go against the long-accepted political wisdom and put himself on the side of American atheists.

"Over the last several years, many of us have felt threatened by organized religion's attempt to force a particular view, though legislation, on all of us, which means we lose our family values," he said. "I just wanted to commend you for your courageous, yet commonsense, stance that sets you above the religious pandering that goes on in Washington."

Stark was quick to admit that in many other issues, his district's liberal leanings make it possible for him to take public positions that could have serious political costs for other Democrats.

When explaining, for example, why trying to impeach President Bush or immediately pulling out of Iraq is something even a Congress controlled by Democrats is unwilling to do, he pointed out his party's diversity, racially, geographically and ideologically.

"What I would do tomorrow would get a lot of my colleagues defeated," he said, mentioning his willingness to raise taxes to pay for universal health care.

Still, Stark was struck by the fact that not one of his 534 colleagues in the House or Senate was willing to say he or she was an atheist.

"They were looking for the highest-ranking politician who would state his or her (lack of) belief in a Supreme Being," Stark said. "Well, I was the first and the second was a former member of the Berkeley school board. That's a pretty big gap."

That's not surprising, said Mark Thomas, assistant state director of American Atheists and the man who nominated Stark for the recognition -- and won a $1,000 prize for it.

"With the current political climate, many think it would be difficult to come out and say they don't believe in God," he said after speaking with the congressman outside Newark City Hall. "But Pete Stark hasn't paid a political price."

Thomas was even happier to see that most of the people at the town hall meetings weren't interested in talking about Stark's position on God. Instead, Iraq, health care, global warming, immigration and other national issues that drove the hour-long sessions.

"It's great that (atheism) didn't come up," he said. "There are far more important things to be concerned about than what Congressman Stark believes."