Stark is the “highest ranking elected official that rejects God.” Here’s more on the story, from the Washington Post:
Stark, whose district is in the San Francisco Bay-area town of Fremont, confirmed his belief in a statement to The Associated Press late Monday. He said he was “a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being.”
“I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social services,” he wrote.
Unitarian Universalism describes itself as creedless, allowing members to shape their beliefs based on personal experience rather than an authoritative statement of religious belief. Some members believe in God, but not all do.
I, like Peter Stark, am Unitarian Universalist (UU). The religion actually started as two distinct groups – the Unitarians and the Universalists – that merged in the 1960s, I believe. The way many people act toward religion and spirituality (i.e. not wanting to attend church, not wanting religion crammed down their throats, finding spiritual experiences in nature, etc. etc.) is very much in keeping with the UU way, even if they don't know it. UUs have seven basic principles to follow, the first being the inherent worth and dignity of every person; another being the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Each UU church interprets these principles in its own way – some churches are quite secular; others have a more spiritual bent. Most people don't know that some of America's earliest foundations were built by people who belonged to one of the two groups. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, Daniel Webster, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau . . . the list goes on and can be found at this link: http://www.famousuus.com/. If you've never heard of UUs, or you think it's some sort of cult (someone actually said this to me once), it's probably because UUs are so concerned with each person finding his or her own truth that we are terrible at evangelism. It's also a hard religion to stomach for people not used to thinking for themselves, which is the primary trait of UUs.
Old Congressman Pete Stark…of 35 years plus in Congress is not only an atheist, but he is just an 'old fart' so to speak who wants to piss off the world. He rants and raves at his constituents and is not a nice guy…he's not a "poster child" that any organization would want to represent them…atheists or otherwise. Check out where he denigrated a constituent who just returned from an overseas deployment to Kosovo…the soldier wrote his congressman (Pete Stark) and got this angry insulting voicemail back. (See the link to the Fox News video below).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djeGqNVXjZE