Congressman Jared Huffman is publishing a new book titled “No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism” to warn about what he characterizes as a theocratic insurgency gaining influence in American politics. Huffman, who represents California, is the only current member of Congress who publicly identifies as a non-believer, describing himself as a humanist rather than an atheist.
Huffman’s path to secularism began during his college years following his father’s death, when he concluded that supernatural tenets of his childhood faith in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints no longer aligned with his worldview. He came to embrace humanist principles centered on ethical living based on science, facts, and reason rather than religious belief. For many years, Huffman kept his secular perspective private out of concern for his family and his political career, as polling consistently shows “atheist” to be a damaging label for candidates seeking public office.
The congressman decided to publicly acknowledge his non-belief in 2017, following his mother’s death and amid concerns about what he viewed as increasing religious extremism in government. Though political advisers warned against the move, he received support from colleagues including House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and congressman Jamie Raskin, with whom he founded the Congressional Freethought Caucus. Huffman acknowledges encountering criticism from both Republicans and some Democratic colleagues who perceive his public non-belief as threatening to Christian identity.
In his book and recent commentary, Huffman contends that American society maintains a “Bible-sized blind spot” regarding Christian nationalism, arguing that the movement has only expanded following the recent return to power of Donald Trump. He points to the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack as a demonstration of this phenomenon, noting that participants openly displayed religious symbols and engaged in prayer, yet many elected officials seemed not to recognize the religious character of the event. Huffman maintains that what he terms “Christian privilege” has shielded domestic religious movements from scrutiny that would be immediately applied to minority or foreign faiths, and he argues this oversight allowed Christian nationalist dimensions to be excluded from the final House January 6 committee report.
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