It's been years, decades even, since the Almighty was so hot.
The evidence is everywhere. President Bush rallied the faithful to hold on to the White House. A book by an Orange County preacher extolling God's purpose in our lives stays a bestseller for more than two years. And Hollywood, frequently seen as a den of iniquity, is courting a more spiritual audience in movies and TV.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday August 03, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 News Desk 2 inches; 67 words Type of Material: Correction
Salvation Army -- A July 18 article in Section A about atheists said the Salvation Army required employees to embrace Jesus Christ. The religious nonprofit requires only that its uniformed officers, who are also ordained ministers, be Christian. Other employees must "understand and support" the group's mission statement, which is "to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination."
Faith is the new must-have, evident when a major leaguer points skyward after his base hit, when a movie star credits the Big Guy for his Oscar, when the Justice Department backs the display of the Ten Commandments at two state capitols, and when it defends the Salvation Army's requirement that employees embrace Jesus Christ.
So where does that leave the fraction of Americans who define themselves as godless? Although the percentage of Americans who claim no religion is about 14%, less than a quarter of them identify themselves as atheists, according to recent polls.
Some are using humor to cope, such as actress Julia Sweeney in her one-woman play "Letting Go of God," which ran in Los Angeles for several months this year. "It's really because I take you so seriously," she tells an imaginary God, "that I can't believe in you."
Others see the future as a time when nonbelievers are outcasts and religion dictates law, social protocol, even private life.
"The McCarthy era is the last time this climate existed," says Simi Valley resident Stuart Bechman, co-president of Atheists United, a local affiliate of Atheist Alliance International.
Although the comparison sounds melodramatic, atheist activists believe the climate to be so perilous that they're considering something drastic: unity.
Atheists aren't by nature of one mind. There's a godless organization for every wrinkle of nonbelief -- the prayer-never-hurt-anyone, live-and-let-live atheists; the prove-the-God-fearing-world-wrong, keep-America-secular atheists; and the contrarian I-don't-believe-in-God-but-don't-call-me-an-atheist atheists.
Fear, however, is a great motivator, and politically active atheists know that they need an advocate in government to be heard. Unfortunately, as one activist noted, most politicians are as eager to align with the godless ranks as they are to lobby for pedophiles. Hence the need for an image makeover.
