Can atheists govern: a reader asks

Today marks the 75^th anniversary of the creation of East Germany. In 1949, the nation of Germany was divided and the eastern part came under the influence of the Soviet Union and rule by the Communist Party. It is a stark reminder of the damage immoral and ungodly leaders can wreak on our world. So, too, is the realization that Germany’s divide came as fruit from the fall of the Nazis and their despicable regime.

Reader has an interesting question: “Can atheists govern?” I believe their question comes from my comments on whether the Ten Commandments should be posted in public school classrooms. But it could also be from what I wrote on “What is the difference between Ethics and Morality?” where I state that atheists “have something unique to contribute to ethical thought.”

In discussing whether the Ten Commandments have a place in public classrooms, I wrote that I’ve met some very moral and fulfilled atheists in my time. You can read the context here.

I think Reader is asking whether atheists have the moral capacity to govern and whether they can make good leaders. If the question is, are they able to govern? Yes, they can. And have governed, at least in some parts of the world.

While no U.S. president has ever openly identified as an atheist, some such as Jefferson, Lincoln, and Taft have been accused of it by their opponents. I believe only one avowed atheist has ever served in the U.S. Congress. I don’t know if any governors have been atheists, though several states do prohibit atheists from holding office, in spite of Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution forbidding religious tests for assuming public office. It’s just not politically helpful to declare oneself an atheist when running for high office in this country.

Some nations in the world have been led by avowed atheists, Communist countries being the prime example, where generally only atheists are allowed to lead. Obviously, there are other leaders in the world who don’t have any religious affiliation or orientation, but that does not mean they are atheists. They could be someone who doesn’t know or doesn’t care if God exists, which is not the same as claiming God does not exist.

And there are different definitions of God. For example, many of our nation’s founders were deists, people who accepted the idea of God, but one that was not involved in the world after creating it. Which is not the same as believing in a God who is active in the world and who has sent Jesus to reveal God to us.

There are certainly different religious understandings about God, different names for God or gods even. Buddhists are very religious people who don’t have a god construct in their vocabulary.

By the way, I don’t make fun of atheists for their beliefs. I give them credit for at least wrestling with the idea of God, unlike others who never give God a thought. One has to be proactive in belief to be an atheist. That is not always the case even with people who happen to call themselves Christian, just because they live in the U.S., while never really giving God a thought.

So, back to Reader’s question. “Can atheists govern?” I find the question fascinating because of what it says to us about leadership generally and what it says about atheists specifically, or at least our understanding of atheists.

I have worked closely with atheists, by the way. I don’t just mean persons labeled as “Nones” here in the U.S. or other secularizing countries. I mean people who specifically believe that God does not exist.

Notably, I have worked closely with atheists in other countries, Communist party members and such, who were in government roles. Like politicians in the U.S., I found some to be great to work with and others I’d never want to work with another day in my life. I discovered that some of these atheists really believed in doing good, which was the reason they went into civic work. And they did do a lot of good.

Personally, if I have my preference, I like a leader who not only believes God exists but has staked their life on it and who is anchored in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Something which can prove a safe anchor. But that said, I also prefer someone who truly lives out what they believe, which sadly is not always the same.

What we believe does have consequences for how we live. As James in the New Testament writes, show me what you believe by how you live your life.¹ Which is to say that your actions can – and will – speak louder than your words.

There are lots of examples of professed Christians who have made poor attempts at doing just that – demonstrating what they believe by how they live and govern.

The cryptic answer to Reader’s question is, “Yes, atheists are able to govern.”

But cryptic answers do not make a post, so let’s dig deeper. We could say that one has to have beliefs to govern, but that gets confusing about what we are trying to say. Better yet is to say that one has to have values that one lives by in order to govern. No one lives or leads in a moral vacuum. Even evil leaders have values, just not ones I would agree with. To have no values is to be a psychopath. Okay, we’ve had such kinds of leaders in the world, but things have never turned out well with them, have they?

Have all evil leaders been atheists? Most definitely not. We can only know what someone believes by what they tell us and sometimes people say they are of such-and-such a religious persuasion, but who knows what’s inside their heads?

Would I prefer a person to lead me who is living out their moral values but does not claim to be a person of faith? Or would I prefer a leader who is a person of faith who does not live out the values of their faith? I don’t know. The question is very either-or and humans are far more complicated than that. I guess I would say I much prefer a person of faith who lives out what their faith teaches them, but short of that, I certainly prefer a moral person in office, regardless of their faith.

In one assignment I had in life, conversations about faith were next to impossible in just about any setting. But one day I was talking with a government leader with whom I had worked closely for some time. I was always careful with what I said, not just to protect my work, but also to protect him – I knew the wrong conversation could complicate things for him. And he had been very kind to me.

In those days, I played an informal role as a liaison of sorts with foreigners in the region, being as I was the foreigner who had the highest contacts in the provincial government. One of the foreigners had gotten into some trouble over being overt in their proselytizing and this leader friend was sending a word of caution through me. He knew this foreigner did not work for me, but I think he was also letting me know I should be careful as well.

I took a chance and said to him, “You know I am a Christian, don’t you?”

He nodded his head, then replied, “But you are not like the others.”

He was using the plural “you,” meaning my team, by which I took to mean he understood our team members were Christians like me. I dared to ask him what he meant by “not like the others.” He replied that he saw the way our team worked together, the way we worked with him and his office, and especially the way we were committed to doing good things for the common people, the people most vulnerable in society.

Somehow, our actions, our priorities, said much to him about our faith. He had been exposed to Christianity while living abroad. I am not sure what that experience was like for him. I only know that he had been given a Bible he intended to read when he retired from government work.

I am not sure how clearly he had thought out his own belief system. He was a Party member, after all, but I knew that Party members, like Christians, can be all over the map when it comes to what they really believe.

What I did know is that treating people well, especially those who are poor, was a firm part of his belief system and it was something he worked hard to live out. There was a sincere effort on his part to live a good moral life, as best as he understood. In fact, he later chose not to take a promotion because to do so would require him to do something contrary to his value system. And for that, I sincerely admired him.

In conversations with other Party members, I came to discover two things. One, some Party members really did believe that the Party was the best way to achieve good in their society. I applauded them for that, because, while I did not agree with everything they or their Party believed, I sensed they were living something along the lines of an examined life and doing their best to live in the light of what they knew.

Two, a few Party members I met seemed a lot like Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night.² They were active Party members, but there was a hunger, an openness to the light they saw in people like me, and I sensed they themselves were seeking while opening doors for people of good will to walk through.

In Night Shift: Crossing the Cultural Line for the Kingdom, I refer to such leaders as “people of peace.”³ Actually, the concept comes from Jesus’ instructions to his followers when he sends them out. He tells them to look for persons of peace wherever they go.⁴ In that specific context, Jesus meant a devout Jewish believer who would welcome them with the warmest of hospitality, according to the custom of their Law.

Based on what I’ve read in Luke’s other writings about the work of the early believers like the Apostle Paul, I have broadened that concept to mean a man or woman sympathetic to my publicly stated mission of good works and one who has proven to be a person who seeks the peace and prosperity where they live and work. They may not agree with everything you believe and do, but they at least affirm the good work you are doing.

I have found such people of peace wherever I have gone. Sometimes they just happen to be atheists.

So, yes, dear Reader, I really do believe that atheists and Christians alike can govern, as long as they are people who seek the peace and prosperity of those they wish to lead. Best if they depend on God to guide them, but short of best, good is always better than bad.

If you are interested in learning more on this approach, check out my book, Night Shift: Crossing the Cultural Line for the Kingdom.

This post is dedicated to Lowen Berman (1942-2024). A very good sort of atheist as well as a Lithuanian Jew, Lowen was a man who lived his values as a person of peace. His family and friends called him a mensch. Pictured here with two other Jewish-atheist Mensches, Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Mier, both former prime ministers of Israel.

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1. James 2:18 ↩︎
2. See the Gospel of John, chapter 3. ↩︎
3. Night Shift: Crossing the Cultural Line for the Kingdom, p. 301. ↩︎
4. Luke 10:6 ↩︎