Americans would much rather have a philandering president than an atheist one

A fun Pew survey out Monday asked Americans what traits would make them more or less likely to support a theoretical presidential candidate. Traits like military service, a gubernatorial stint, and so on all helped. But on the flip side, the most negative trait among those Pew sampled was not a total absence of legislative experience, or drug use, or even a history of cheating: It was atheism.

Fifty-three percent of respondents said they would be less likely to support an atheist candidate; only 35 percent said the same about a known cheater.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.