An early morning pedestrian is silhouetted in opposition to dawn as he walks by way of the U.S. Flags on the Nationwide Mall and previous the U.S. Capitol Constructing in Washington Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. J. David Ake, Related Press
The spiritual make-up of america has notably shifted in current many years, because the share of People who establish as religiously unaffiliated has surged. However this pattern has but to considerably have an effect on the composition of Congress, which continues to be dominated by Christians, based on a brand new evaluation from Pew Analysis Heart.
“Since 2007, the share of Christians within the normal inhabitants has dropped from 78% to its current stage of 63%,” Pew reported. “However Christians make up 88% of the voting members of the brand new 118th Congress being sworn in on Jan. 3 — just a few proportion factors decrease than the Christian share of Congress within the late Seventies.”
A lot of the 469 Christians within the 118th Congress establish as some kind of Protestant, resembling Baptist (67), Methodist (31) or Presbyterian (25). However a notable minority (148) establish as Catholic; Catholics comprise 27.7% of Congress total, Pew discovered.
Though Christians dominate each the Republican and Democratic contingents in Congress, the Democratic caucus is extra religiously numerous.
“All of the Unitarian Universalists (3), Muslims (3), Buddhists (2) and Hindus (2) in Congress are Democrats, and there may be one Democrat who identifies as humanist,” Pew reported.
Within the Republican caucus, however, all however three officers establish with a religion group that Pew classifies as Christian. Two are Jewish and one has an unknown spiritual affiliation.
“Almost 7 in 10 Republican members of Congress establish as Protestants (69%),” in comparison with 44.1% of Democratic members of Congress, based on Pew.
On this Congress, as in different current periods, only one member — Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — identifies as religiously unaffiliated. One other — Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif. — is Congress’ lone humanist.
Pew’s evaluation is predicated totally on information collected by CQ Roll Name, which acquired responses to questions on spiritual affiliation from all however 20 members of the 118th Congress.
“The CQ questionnaire asks members what spiritual group, if any, they belong to. It doesn't try and measure their spiritual beliefs or practices,” Pew famous.
Listed below are just a few different notable takeaways from Pew’s new report:
- 9 members of the 118th Congress establish as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All are a part of the Republican Get together.
- There are not any Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus among the many newly elected members of Congress.
- One member of the 118th Congress identifies as a Messianic Jew: Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican. Pew famous that Luna has additionally described herself as Christian prior to now.
- Jews comprise 6% of Congress however solely 2% of the U.S. inhabitants.