Agree or Disagree - Atheists are a persecuted minority in 2014 America.

[LeftishBrit]

36. No more than women, Jews, Muslims, African-Americans, etc....

However, if there was not a single, or perhaps only one, female/Jewish/Muslim/African-American member of Congress, and if admitting to be any of those things automatically led to ineligibility for office in most places, it would be discrimination. (Indeed, I would say that even the approximately 20% representation of women in the legislatures of both our countries is arguably discrimination.)

To clarify - I am not proposing that atheists should have their own political party, or that anyone should vote for atheist candidates just because they're atheists; simply that atheists should have the same right to hold office as anyone else. As I understand, there are even a few states in America where atheists are explicitly barred by the state constitution for holding office; in the majority of states, they are implicitly barred by voter hostility to atheists. Despite the lack of official church-state separation in the UK, this is far less true here.