Senator: Democrats are Often ‘Embarrassed’ or ‘Uncomfortable’ to Share about Their Faith

Delaware Democrat Senator Chris Coons said in an interview with Church Politics podcast that Democrats should be open about their faith.

“I am concerned, frankly, that more and more Democrats feel embarrassed about or uncomfortable with sharing anything about their faith and how it connects to their service,” Coons said this week on the podcast.

“Some of the most progressive members of the Senate, members I’m very close to, don’t ever talk about how it was their experience of faith, when they were children, that motivated them to get into public service and politics in the first place.”

Coons was speaking with Democrat political strategist Justin Giboney and Church Politics host and former Obama administration official Michael Wear.

Coons’ comments come after a Pew U.S. Politics and Policy department poll from 2017, which said that 36 percent of Democrats in general and 44 percent of self-identified liberal Democrats believe the church is negatively impacting society.

In a column for The Atlantic following the report’s release, Coons wrote that the majority of Democrats are “people of faith.”

“Like many Americans, I’m a progressive Democrat and a Christian,” he wrote in the 2017 column. “That’s why I know that progressive values aren’t just secular values. We can get to some of our most important public-policy priorities…