As the percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians declines, the number of Christians in Congress continues to hold steady. In the new 115th Congress, 91% identify themselves as Christians, according to new research by the Pew Research Center. This is the same as the last Congress, and not much different from the 95% of Christians in 1960-61, the earliest years from which data are available.
Among 293 Republicans, 291 are Christians and 2 are Jews. The 242 Democrats are slightly more diverse, with 194 (80%) Christians, 28 Jews, three Buddhists, three Hindus, two Muslims, one Unitarian and one who is religiously unaffiliated (Arizona’s Rep. Kyrsten Sinema). There were also ten Democrats who declined to answer.
Protestants, Catholics and Jews are all overrepresented in Congress, compared to their percentage of the population. The only major group that is underrepresented is the “nones”—the religiously affiliated. As previously reported here, the nones went from 16% of the population in 2007 to 23% in 2014, while the number of Christians dropped from 78% to 71%. In Congress, 91% of members are Christians and .2% are nones, unless some of those ten Democrats who refused to answer are trying to hide their lack of religiosity.
It is likely that the same forces that result in minority rule by rural, small state Republicans—structural biases in the composition of the House, the Senate and the electoral college—also account for the overrepresentation of Christians.
In addition their differences on obvious culture war issues such abortion and gay rights, Christians are less likely than the religiously unaffiliated to favor government assistance for the poor and less likely to favor environmental protection. They are more likely to say that peace is best assured through military strength. In addition, religious people are more likely to be racially prejudiced.
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