Jared Huffman

Representative Jared Huffman, Democrat of California, thought he was going to make himself a political pariah when he announced publicly that he did not believe in God.

Mr. Huffman, the only self-declared “humanist” in Congress, found that constituents in his mostly liberal Northern California district were unfazed.

Now Mr. Huffman has written a book in which he takes on how religion influences politics in America, in which he argues that extreme Christian nationalism, embraced and enabled by influential Republicans, is the country’s most dangerous political movement. He also accuses many of his own Democratic colleagues of being “incapable” of naming and confronting the threat.

In “No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy From Christian Nationalism,” which is to be published this month, Mr. Huffman, who grew up in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of Mormonism, argues that the rise of Christian nationalism in American politics is openly targeting democracy, church-state separation and pluralism.

Ahead of the book's release, Mr. Huffman spoke to The New York Times about his colleagues, his atheism, his distrust of the pastors in the halls of the Capitol and his argument that Speaker Mike Johnson is a Christian nationalist who dangerously blurs the boundary between church and state. The speaker, who has placed his evangelical Christianity at the center of his political life and policy positions, did not respond to a request for comment about the book's claims.

The interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

You write that you’re the only member of Congress “dumb enough to publicly admit I don’t believe in God,” but discovered that doing so did not cost you politically. Can you explain why?

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