But sometimes they wonder if he is actually good for their cause
Although the new U.S. president has evoked the name of Jesus at a rate observers calculate exceeds that of his predecessor, American atheists still think Barack Obama is on their side in a way George Bush never was. Even so, some like Ed Buckner, president of American Atheists, wonder whether advocates and activists may be witnessing one-step-forward, two-steps-backward phenomenon with Obama. While grateful for the new president’s public nods to unbelief, Buckner says, “The fact that our best shot of making things better still goes around saying God stuff all the time in some ways maybe makes it worse.”