Stephen L. Carter, Columnist

The Atheism Gap

A CNN special report swept into the wings atheism’s significant race and gender problems.

March 27, 2015 at 8:26 PM UTC

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of law at Yale University and author of “Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster.”

American atheists, mostly white and mostly male.
Photographer: Allison Shelley/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

CNN’s special report on atheists this week didn’t draw many viewers, and has been kicked around a bit in the blogosphere. Certainly the program had its gaffes. Most important, as other critics have noted, the report trotted out the hoary -- and ridiculous -- claim that 1 in 3 millennials are atheists. (The correct figure is closer to 3 percent.)

But that wasn’t the biggest mistake. By focusing on the lives of atheists, CNN swept into the wings, with only the briefest of mentions, atheism’s significant race and gender problems.