Rep. Jared Huffman is (Officially) the Only Openly "Humanist" Member of Congress

[brooklynite]

The Friendly Atheist

When the Pew Research Center released its list of the religious affiliations of everyone in Congress, as it does every two years, only one member was listed as “Unaffiliated” (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona). Another 18 were listed as “don’t know” or “refused.”



From my perspective, that meant there were literally no openly non-religious politicians.

That was odd for two reasons. First, how the hell could we have 535 members of Congress without a single person willing to use the word “atheist” (or some reasonable synonym)?

Second, didn’t Rep. Jared Huffman say he was non-religious? He did! In 2017, the California Democrat announced that he was a humanist (With a small “h,” if that matters). In an interview with the Washington Post, he specifically said the phrase, “I suppose you could say I don’t believe in God.”

So why wasn’t he listed as a Humanist on that Pew Research list? According to Pew, “Huffman remains categorized as ‘don’t know/refused’ because he declined to state his religious identity in the CQ Roll Call questionnaire used to collect data for this report.”

[JI7]

1. im pretty sure Sinema is an atheist so unaffiliated would fit that based on the choices given

[madinmaryland]

2. A quarter of US adults are unafilated to any religion? What exactly does that mean?

Are they atheists, agnostics, or whatever?

[JI7]

3. it could also mean people who believe in God but are not part of any religion

they believe in a higher power .

but it can also mean atheist which sinema is .

[YOHABLO]

4. Pietist?

[madinmaryland]

5. I'm a Pastafarian and worship her noodly appendages!

[Celerity]

6. Pietism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietism

Pietism is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with the Reformed emphasis on individual piety and living a vigorous Christian life.

Although the movement initially was active exclusively within Lutheranism, it had a tremendous impact on Protestantism worldwide, particularly in North America and Europe. Pietism originated in modern Germany in the late 17th century with the work of Philipp Spener, a Lutheran theologian whose emphasis on personal transformation through spiritual rebirth and renewal, individual devotion, and piety laid the foundations for the movement. Although Spener did not directly advocate the quietistic, legalistic, and semi-separatist practices of Pietism, they were more or less involved in the positions he assumed or the practices which he encouraged.

Pietism spread from Germany to Switzerland and the rest of German-speaking Europe, to Scandinavia and the Baltics (where it was heavily influential, leaving a permanent mark on the region's dominant Lutheranism, with figures like Hans Nielsen Hauge in Norway, Peter Spaak and Carl Olof Rosenius in Sweden, Katarina Asplund in Finland, and Barbara von Krüdener in the Baltics), and to the rest of Europe. It was further taken to North America, primarily by German and Scandinavian immigrants. There, it influenced Protestants of other ethnic backgrounds, contributing to the 18th-century foundation of evangelicalism, a movement within Protestantism that today has some 300 million followers.

snip

Although Pietism declined from its zenith, some of its theological tenets influenced Protestantism generally, inspiring the Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement and Alexander Mack to begin the Anabaptist Brethren movement. Though Pietism shares an emphasis on personal behavior with the Puritan movement, and the two are often confused, there are important differences, particularly in the concept of the role of religion in government.