Guess how many of the major-party candidates in next month's congressional elections are openly atheist. Hint: You can count them on one finger.

It tells you something that in a time when "no religion" is the category of roughly 20 percent of Americans, virtually none of the hundreds of Democrats and Republicans vying for congressional seats identify as a religious "none."

Whether it's because some consider their atheism, agnosticism or indifference a deal-breaker and don't even try for office, or whether it's because some non-religious candidates fudge the truth for political viability, this much seems clear: Candidates have to at least feign some religiosity to qualify for prominent political office, despite our Constitution forbidding religion tests of this sort. And atheism and related forms of non-belief are about the worst thing a candidate can be associated with.

This situation should not, and will not, hold for long.

Just in time for the "silly season," otherwise known as the elections, a coalition of secular organizations is launching a campaign to destigmatize non-belief in the public square. It's called Openly Secular, and if that brings to mind people coming out of closets as we saw with the gay-rights movement, well, that's the idea.

Explaining the need for the campaign, Carolyn Becker, spokesperson for Openly Secular, points to polling data showing that 53 percent of Americans think it's necessary to believe in God to be moral. Other survey data show that being an atheist is more injurious to one's shot at political office than being an adulterer.

These trends would likely bend if more Americans got to know people who were openly non-religious and saw them working hard, taking care of their kids and neighborhoods, and being generally kind and honest in their dealings with other people.

These days, candidates often rush to outdo one another in showing how religious they are. Those who are quieter about such matters are frequently asked where they stand on matters of faith. Non-believers -- and you know they're out there -- should not have to lie to remain viable.

Get this: Even some conservatives don't believe in God. The prominent columnist George Will, for instance, recently revealed that he is an atheist -- albeit an "amiable, low-voltage" one, as Will put it. Low voltage or high, Will has come out.

So has his conservative column-writing compatriot Charles Krauthammer, who recently distanced himself from conventional belief in God by saying that reverence for the mystery and awesomeness of the universe was as far as he could go.

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Candidates must at least feign some religiosity