Why The Millennial's Will Elect An Atheist President

There was a time in America where the only individuals being elected to higher office were white, older, protestant men. While it is true that in many places this is still the status quo there has been an undeniable change occurring, albeit slowly. The Millennial attitude on many social issues here in the United States will be, in my opinion, the straw that broke the camels back so to speak.

The election of John F. Kennedy, who was a practicing Catholic, illustrated a milestone in religious tolerance in the U.S. Progressing a few decades forward Barack Obama was elected, which again signified a turning point in the electorate's views on who was a "qualified" candidate. Mitt Romney's campaign also highlighted this shift from the importance of being a certain Christain denomination, to as long as you are Christain that will be good enough. Although there was still some heavy criticism for Romney's adherence to the Mormon faith, in the end his message of creating jobs and putting the country back on track trumped the importance of what god he prayed or how he went about doing it, thus securing his nomination as the Republicans party's presidential candidate.

We, the Millennials, have been witness to some of these transformations, and others we have read about in textbooks. A recent example of religion in politics being placed on the back burner is the issue surrounding marriage equality. For decades this was a toxic political topic that, if mentioned publicly, would almost certainly result in a politician's  next election being a catastrophic loss. Now as Millennials come to age, and began to assert their presence in the ballot box, and in survey polls there has been a drastic shift in public attitude surrounding the acceptment of gay marriage. I strongly believe that this is one of the largest indicators that religion-based politics and policy is on a downward trend.

In addition to some of the domestic changes occurring there has also been foreign events and policies that have completely restructured the views that many Millennials have had. The introduction of a "religious war" by Islamic extremists against the West, Iranian religious leaders calling the United States the "Great Satan", and the war in Iraq have all taken an extremely sectarian tone. Instead of the Bible, Koran, and the Torah being the instruction manual for how to people live in peace, it has consistently and frequently been used as propaganda to promote a certain ideology. Usually this thought process is centered around the exclusion of some, while reinforcing their own position of power through manipulation and coercion.

So if all of these events are fundamentally changing how the Millennial generation will vote in the future, what are the consequences? Will our willingness to vote into office a non-believer mean the systemic downfall of our country? Will an atheist president possess no moral compass for us to follow, resulting in disaster? I dare say that these possibilities are remote to say the least. The ability for a candidate to not be tied down to one religious group or another will only make that candidate more able to perform the duties of that elected office. A candidate who can cross not just racial and ethnic lines, but also religious ones will make that candidate a better representative of the people. Furthermore, an atheist president will be willing to look past the religious doctrine concerning issues and view them in a more realistic fashion. Each new administration controlling the White House will have its own new and unique issues to deal with. In the past religiously orientated presidents have stalled on some issues, and outright ignored others because of their beliefs. The time for recognizing the tidal shift in the American electorate is now. This reason, along with many others, is why the question of whether Americans will elect an openly atheist president is not a matter of if, but when.