All I'm asking is that politicians pay some attention to non-believers. I'm
not asking that "In God We Trust" be removed from our money. I'm
not saying we should stop pledging allegiance to "one nation under God,"
take chaplains off public payrolls, tax churches, deliver the mail on
Sundays, or anything else so revolutionary. I'm no fool. I know prohibitive
odds when I see them.

I'm suggesting only that our political leaders ease up on the incessant
God-talk. But, you might ask, isn¹t it enough that our new President Obama,
a religious man, actually acknowledged the existence of non-believers in his
inaugural address? No other president has ever deigned to even recognize our
presence.

It was heartening, Obama's statement that "we are a nation of Christians and
Muslims, Jews and Hindus ­ and non-believers."

But from then on, of course, it was the usual politician's God-talk. "God,"
he said, "calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny... the meaning of our
liberty and our creed ­ why men and women and children of every race and
every faith can join in celebration." Every faith. There's apparently no
such destiny, after all, for those of no faith.

Our president also reassured us, you might remember, that we have had "God's
grace upon us."

Naturally, Obama ended his speech with the usual ritualistic words no
political speaker seeking majority favor ever fails to deliver:"God bless
the United States of America."

As bad as that was to those of us who dare to believe that God is not on our
side ­ or anywhere else -- it could be worse.

Think of what other presidents have told us about God. Think of President
George W. Bush's declaration that "our nation is chosen by God and
commissioned by history to be a model of the world," and his insistence
that "Americans feel our reliance on the Creator who made us... We received
our rights from God."

Jimmy Carter openly sought a
"partnership with God." Ronald Reagan attacked
those who advocated government "grounded on reason rather than the law of
God."

My first act as president is a prayer," said George H.W. Bush, just moments
after being sworn into office with, of course, his hand on a Bible, that
book of mythical tales that he and so many others claim to revere and
presume to use as guidance in governing us.

President Clinton actually complained that
"those of us who have faith" were
not getting sufficient attention. Not getting sufficient attention!

Clinton also declared that "religious freedom is literally our first
freedom." Maybe so. But whatever its ranking, shouldn't the freedom of
religion be coupled with freedom FROM religion for non-believing citizens?

Or at least freedom from political paeans to a God we do not
recognize. And never voted for.

Dick Meister is a San Francisco writer. Contact him through his website,
www.dickmeister.com.