Stark Speaks

Six months (or roughly the typical interval between my posts on this here blog) after Rep. Pete Stark broke Congress’ proverbial “color line” and became the first member in history to acknowledge publicly that he lacks a “God belief,” the California Democrat is finally ready to talk about it.

Stark will deliver an address titled “Government Without God?” as he is presented by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy – a 30-year-old group devoted to “ministering,” as it were, to the university’s Humanist, agnostic, atheist and non-religious community – with their 15th annual Harvard Humanist of the Year award. The address is set for Thursday night, Sept. 20, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Emerson Hall’s Room 105.

On the reaction to his decision to come out of the nontheist closet, the program’s flyer states:

Despite the numerous surveys showing atheists to be the group Americans would be least likely to elect to political office, Stark denies that it takes courage to become the first admitted non-theist in the House. "What is courageous," he adds, "is to stand up in Congress and say, 'Let's tax the rich and give money to poor kids."'

Ahhhh, Fortney. I so WANT to like you. But then you gotta go and say something dumb like that.