Religious composition of the US House & Senate revealed

[rug]

By Can Tran
Jan 5, 2013

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a new analysis that says that the number of the 113th US Congress not identifying with a specific religions faith is larger than compared to the previous US Congresses.

A new analysis conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has provided new information on what the 113th Congress (consisting of both the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate) is going to be in terms of religious affiliations. According to this new study, there is a growing number of Senators and House Representatives who do not identify with any particular religion. In short, you have more politicians in Washington for this Congress that do not belong to any particular religious faith.

According to the religious makeup, as analyzed by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is the following for the US House: 247 Protestants, 136 Catholics, 22 Jews, 8 Mormons, 8 Unspecified, 5 Orthodox Christians, 2 Buddhists, 2 Muslims, 1 Unitarian Universalist, 1 Hindu, and 1 Unaffiliated. In the case of the US Senate: 52 Protestants, 27 Catholics, 11 Jews, 7 Mormons, 2 Unspecified, and 1 Buddhist. It mentions Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) as the first Hindu to be elected to the US House and Senator Mazie K. Hironi (D-HI) as the first Buddhist to be elected tot he US House.

In further breaking down religion the study says that Lutherans are split between the GOP and Democratic Parties. Protestants, in general, have more Republicans than Democrats. At the same time, more Catholics part of the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. Non-Christians in the Congress are exclusively Democrat at the moment

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/340597

[Wounded Bear]

1. I call that good news.....

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. A mistake in the digitaljournal article (blog?): not the first Buddhist in the House

The Pew article says:

Gabbard takes over the seat held in the 112th Congress by Rep. Mazie K. Hirono (D), who on Nov. 6, 2012, became the first Buddhist elected to the Senate.

In 2006, Hirono and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) became the first Buddhists to be elected to the House. Four years later, they were joined by a third Buddhist member, Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii). Johnson and Hanabusa were re-elected to serve in the 113th Congress.

http://www.pewforum.org/Government/Faith-on-the-Hill--The-Religious-Composition-of-the-113th-Congress.aspx#_ftnref2

[rug]

12. She follows the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism.

She used the Bhagavad Gita at her swearing-in.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. No, I was talking about how it described Hirono

"Senator Mazie K. Hironi (sic) (D-HI) as the first Buddhist to be elected tot he US House"

Well, Hirono was the joint first Buddhist in the House, but that was back in 2006. Now, she's the first Buddhist in the Senate.

[rug]

14. I misread that.

[tanyev]

3. I suspect that Lutheran split between GOP and Democrats

actually reflects a further breakdown between LCMS or WELS and the ELCA. I knew I was in the wrong synod when I got a monthly church magazine that did a feature on all the LCMS Lutherans in Congress and they were all RW nut jobs.

[marlakay]

6. There is a split in WA state of the Presbyterians too

My neighbors church went to being RW evangelical Presbyterian.

I remember when I first found out what church she went to I was surprised since I knew she was fox news, rush Limbaugh type, so when I found out church split off last year, no surprise.

[ca3799]

4. Who is the UU? (nt)

[kmlisle]

9. Ami Bera from California

He was raised Hindu but is a member of the UU.

[RedstDem]

5. need a majority of atheist

mankind will not be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

[cbayer]

22. That will never happen, so you might want to look for a plan b.

[LeftishBrit]

27. That saying is very out of date

Perhaps if it were changed to 'until the last banker is strangled with the entrails of the last right-wing journalist', I might agree more! Though even there, I'd prefer just to reduce their power, as has already been done with kings.

[RedstDem]

28. It's not out of date yet

until the last king and priest, when i look around, i still see too many of both.

[thesquanderer]

7. Religious composition of our gov't? Followers of Goldman Sachs. (n/t)

[bowens43]

8. Belief in invisible omnipotent magical beings should disqualify you from public service. nt

[rug]

10. Why?

[okasha]

15. Because

that Constitution thingie is evil.

[humblebum]

11. Thank you Mr. Lenin. Now back to our reality show. nt

[LeftishBrit]

16. 'Belief in invisible omnipotent magical beings' - You mean like the Free Market?

Last edited Sun Jan 6, 2013, 07:34 PM - Edit history (1)

[cleanhippie]

17. Believing? No. But calling on invisible omnipotent magical beings to slove the problems

of the country as a realistic solution should.

[humblebum]

18. Thank you Mr. Lenin. Now back to our reality show. nt

[LeftishBrit]

24. So everyone who doesn't agree with you is 'Mr Lenin' now?

If I had your posting style, I'd be calling you 'Mr McCarthy' by now.

[humblebum]

29. Would that be Charlie McCarthy? nt

[cbayer]

23. Only as long as you get to define what an invisible, omnipotent magical being is.

[LeftishBrit]

25. People's private beliefs should not disqualify them from office.

Unless perhaps it's a belief in the omnipotent free market.

[Phillip McCleod]

19. fascinating. thx

the end was kind of weird tho.

'With that said, the number of members that don't affiliate with a specific denomination of religion is growing. At the same time, you have the AFA saying that conservative Christians will be treated as second class citizens in the future.'

[cbayer]

20. More accurately reflecting the general population.

Good.

[pinto]

21. Interesting. (aside) What I'd also love to see is occupation prior to elected position.

[LeftishBrit]

26. That would be interesting

I think in the UK the variety of previous occupations of MPs has changed with time, and not always in a good way. There used to be quite a lot of Labour MPs who originally came from working-class backgrounds; now there are far fewer. I also think there used to be more MPs who had been school or university teachers.Now, in all parties, there is an increasing number of MPs who worked in public relations - as Cameron did- or who have never really had non-political careers, having gone straight from university to being an assistant or researcher for an MP or a party, and then getting selected to fight a seat.

My own MP (whom I loathe) studied music at university and trained as an opera singer before becoming an MP at the age of 30, but that is not entirely typical.