Kerry, of course, is not godless. He's just good at reaching out to godless voters.
In fact, Kerry won a 100 percent rating on the Secular Coalition's scorecard for the 109th Congress. The coalition scored only 10 Senate votes, which focused on just three issues: marriage, stem cell research and judges. They opposed a federal amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. They favored using tax dollars to kill embryos for their stem cells. And they were against a series of conservative judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito.
A senator could have voted for higher or lower taxes, a bigger or smaller welfare state, or for or against funding the Iraq War, and it would not have impacted his score with the Secular Coalition. The nontheist lobby chose its targets strategically: life, marriage and nominees who believe in judicial restraint.
On the House side, Stark was one of only eight members who earned a 100 percent rating from the Secular Coalition. The other seven were also liberal Democrats. Here, again, the coalition scored only 10 votes, which included the marriage amendment and federal funding for research that kills human embryos. There are no judicial nominations to score in the House, of course, but the coalition did oppose the Pledge Protection Act, which would have stripped federal judges of the authority to hear suits challenging the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance.
There is good news here for politicians of either party who support life, marriage and judicial restraint. The nontheist lobby thinks they are on God's side.