Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders paid a visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night and would not answer directly whether or not he believed in God.

Sanders has said many times he is Jewish but also that he doesn’t view himself as religious. Kimmel asked him directly about his faith during the interview.

Kimmel asked, “You say you’re culturally Jewish, you don’t feel religious. Do you believe in God, and do you think that’s important to the people of the United States?”

Sanders reply, and what Sanders left out of his comment is very telling about the candidates ideas of governance.

“Well, you know, I am who I am. And what I believe in and what my spirituality is about is that we’re all in this together. That I think it is not a good thing to believe that, as human beings, we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people,” Sanders said.

Bravo. This is the kind of answer all politicians should be giving. We don’t need to know if candidates believe in God or not, we need to know how they will govern the country.

If they want to govern with their religious beliefs, it matters, but if they plan to run the country as the secular nation that is is, then what they believe does not matter.

We don’t know if Sanders is an atheist or not, but what we do know is he only sees himself as culturally Jewish, not surprising for someone whose family was killed in the Holocaust, but he doesn’t identify as religiously Jewish.

This, among some other factors clearly make Sanders the ideal candidate for secularists and especially for atheists.

I am joining John Loftus in openly claiming that I believe Sanders is the atheist candidate we have been waiting for.

[Image: Bernie Sanders Campaign Media Kit]