February 2019 Church & State Magazine - February 2019

Religious Diversity In Congress Inches Upward

  Rob Boston

Religious diversity in the new Congress has crept upward slightly but still fails to reflect trends in American society, a new study shows.

The Pew Research Center, analyzing data provided by Congressional Quarterly, reported that the 116th Congress is 88 percent Christian, down three points from the last Congress. The general U.S. population is about 71 percent Christian.

Wrote Pew, “While the number of self-identified Christians in Congress has ticked down, Christians as a whole – and especially Protestants and Catholics – are still overrepresented in proportion to their share in the general public. Indeed, the religious makeup of the new, 116th Congress is very different from that of the United States population.”

Added Pew, “But by far the largest difference between the U.S. public and Congress is in the share who are unaffiliated with a religious group. In the general public, 23% say they are atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular.’ In Congress, just one person – Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who was recently elected to the Senate after three terms in the House – says she is religiously unaffiliated, making the share of ‘nones’ in Congress 0.2%.”

Religious affiliations in the new Congress break down like this: Protestant, 293; Roman Catholic, 163; Jewish, 34; Don’t know/refused, 18; Mormon, 10; Orthodox Christian, 5; Muslim, 3; Hindu, 3; Buddhist, 2, Unitarian Universalist, 2; Unaffiliated, 1. (At the time the survey was taken, a House seat in North Carolina remained open.)

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


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