A couple of my expat-Brit friends are becoming US citizens this autumn. They’re not giving up their UK passports; that’s not necessary any more. Dual is cool. It’s so much more convenient to enter the EC on a British passport and the US with a US one; and you get to vote and serve on juries too! And they ask me how long I’ve been a “Green card” holder, and I tell them (27 years), and they’re incredulous. Why haven’t I got US citizenship? It’s no big deal: a bit like carrying both a Visa and an Amex card, or joining the United Airlines and British Airways frequent flier programs, or owning a PC and a Mac. It’s no big deal; it doesn’t mean anything.
Well, yes, for me it does. It’s very simple. I don’t feel that I can, in good conscience, affirm any kind of allegiance to a country in which I am, politically, a pariah. Sure, I live and work in the United States, but so what? People live and work all over the world, often in countries where they wouldn’t dream of becoming citizens. If I hadn’t come to the US back in 1981, I’d probably have gone to work in Saudi Arabia. I’m sure that there are many delightful Saudis, and I’d have many friends and colleagues there – but would you swear allegiance to a barbaric, misogynistic theocracy? Me neither.
OK, so America doesn’t burn schoolgirls to death in the name of “modesty”, and when it kills its criminals, it does so in private with technology rather than in public with a sword. But it’s still the case that most Americans don’t believe that I could be a citizen. Remember Bush senior?

“No, I don’t know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”

But that was over 20 years ago; surely things have improved. Hardly. Here’s Joan Smith in The Independent:

In a closely-fought Senate contest in North Carolina, the Democratic candidate reacted with fury and a libel suit when her Republican opponent wrongly implied she was an atheist. Instead of shrugging off Elizabeth Dole’s accusation, Kay Hagan responded as though she’d been branded a paedophile. […] Hagan isn’t an atheist. So what? I’m not a Christian and I’d be mildly offended if someone suggested I was, but I wouldn’t respond as though I’d been called an axe murderer.

Of course, Smith is writing in Europe – specifically, in the UK – where attitudes are different:

In this country, we have Cabinet ministers who are relaxed about saying they dont believe in God, and being an atheist is no bar to getting elected. In the last census, just over 8.5 million people (15 per cent) said they had no religion, and almost 400,000 showed what they thought about the question by declaring themselves Jedi Knights. In France, a poll last year suggested that almost a third of the population describe themselves as atheists. In the Czech Republic, almost 60 per cent say they have no religion.

This isn’t a party political thing, you know. OK, most of the paleo-Christians vote hard right, but even Barack Obama has called for “Christians on Capitol Hill, Jews on Capitol Hill and Muslims on Capitol Hill” to provide “an injection of morality in our political debate”, as though non-believers were incapable of contributing on a moral issue. Check that… OK, yes, Obama said:

…because I do not believe that religious people have a monopoly on morality, I would rather have someone who is grounded in morality and ethics, and who is also secular, affirm their morality and ethics and values without pretending that they’re something they’re not

So he doesn’t want people pretending to be religious, which would be fine if it were not for the fact that such honesty would be political suicide. Smith again:

Atheists are the most despised people in the US, way ahead of Muslims, homosexuals and Jews, according to research by the University of Minnesota. They are regarded as “a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public” and almost half the country wouldn’t vote for an atheist as president. Godless Americans – there were 29.4 million of them (14 per cent) in 2001 – deserve much better than this.

I’m glad when American atheists raise their voices in protest against the bigotry of many religious Americans. I’m encouraged when they point out how unacceptable it would be if a typical rant by a Christianist were directed instead against Jews. I’m happy to help them, and to support things like the AHA campaign. But as long as most Americans view me as an alien, I think I’ll stay that way.
PS Yes, I know that Hagan dropped her libel suit as soon as she thrashed Dole. I think she was only really worried that she might get booted off MySpace. (They do that to atheists, you know.)