By Deacon Mike
Manno
(The Wanderer) – The Pew Research
Center has released its findings of the religious makeup of the 118th Congress
which took office at the beginning of this month. Among its findings is that
the number of Catholic members is down ten members, to 148 from the 158 in the
previous 117th Congress, which ended in December.
The report noted
that those members of Congress who claim Christianity as their religious
preference was at 88 percent, while at the same time in the population at large
the percentage of those claiming to be Christian had dropped from 78 percent to
63 percent since 2007. Going back a bit further, the report noted that in the
96th Congress (1979-1980) 91 percent of the members of Congress had
self-identified as Christian.
The religious
views of twenty members are unknown, since they either failed to respond to the
question, or their religious beliefs are otherwise unknown. This includes the
new New York Republican Cong. George Santos, who told his hometown newspaper
that he was “clearly Catholic” but had campaigned as being “Jew-ish.” We’ll
probably hear more about him and his conflicted resume later. As we went to
press this week, calls for his resignation had begun.
Arizona Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema, identified as “unaffiliated” while another, Cong. Jared Huffman
of California, described himself as a “humanist.”
Pew reported that “the 469 Christians (out of 534 total members) at the start
of the 2023-2024 session comprise — by a smidgen — the lowest number since Pew
Research Center began analyzing the religious affiliation of the House and
Senate for the 2009-2010 session. During the eight most recent [Congresses],
the number of Christians in Congress was above 470, and it exceeded 500 as of
1970.”
While the number
of Catholics in Congress declined nearly two percent over the last Congress,
the number of Protestants rose by six members to 303, an increase of a little
over one percent. It was the first time in four Congresses that the Protestant
total topped 300. Of the Protestants, the Baptists and Methodists were the
largest singular denominations, with the Baptist numbers remaining the same at
67 members for 12.5 percent of the total. Methodists declined by four and make
up 5.8 percent of the total with 31 members.
Of the
Protestants, the number that did not specify a particular denomination, but
identified as: just Protestant, evangelical Protestant, or just Christian rose
from 96 to 107 members.
Other Christian
Protestants included in significant numbers were Anglican/Episcopal, 22
members, down from 26 last term; Presbyterian, 25; down one from 26, while
Lutheran stayed the same at 22. The report noted that the Anglican and
Presbyterian denominations have suffered from a general decline in membership
overall. The total of Mormons remained at nine.
Of the
non-Christian religions, Jews lost one member from last term to a new total of
33, giving them 6.2 percent of the total membership in Congress. Buddhist,
Muslims, and Hindus remained at their previous levels, two members, three, and
two, respectively.
One new member
from Florida, Cong. Anna Paulina Luna, listed herself as a Messianic Jew. Three
members identified as Unitarian Universalists.
Reporting on the differences between the chambers, the report said, “Both the
Senate and the House are numerically dominated by Christians, with each chamber
having a similar Protestant majority (57 percent in the House, 56 percent in
the Senate). Looking at Protestant subgroups, Baptists make up a slightly
larger share of the House (13 percent) than the Senate (10 percent).
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Congregationalists comprise larger
shares in the Senate than in the House.
“Catholics account for a slightly greater share of House than Senate members
(28 percent and 26 percent, respectively). There are eight Orthodox Christians
in the House, but none in the Senate.”
Of the
non-Christians, Jews have a more significant presence in the Senate with nine
percent of that body while they have only six percent of the House membership.
There is a Buddhist in each chamber, and all the Muslims, Hindus, and Unitarian
Universalists are in the House.
When viewed by
party, the congressional religious make-up is more Christian than the general
population. While Christianity is the dominant tradition of both parties,
Republicans are — by percentage — more heavily represented than the Democrats,
99 percent (268 out of 271) to 76 percent (201 of 263). However, a greater
share of Democrats identify as Catholic, 31 to 25 percent.
Among the total
numbers of Democrats, 12 percent are Jewish, of the members whose religious
preferences are not known, seven percent are Democrats. All Unitarians, Muslims,
Buddhists, and Hindus are Democrats.
Sixty-nine percent of the Republicans in Congress identify as Protestants.
Baptists make up 15 percent of the total; Methodists and Presbyterians, five
percent; nondenominational Protestants, 25 percent. All nine Mormons in
Congress are Republicans; two members are Jewish.
For the purposes
of analysis, the authors of the study included the three Independents in
Congress, Senators Kyrsten Sinema, Angus King, and Bernie Sanders as Democrats.
While the
percentage of Protestants is declining in the adult population, the “newcomers
to Congress are substantially more likely than returning members to identify as
Protestant: Nearly two-thirds of freshmen (64 percent) are Protestants,
compared with 55 percent of incumbents,” the report said. However, it points
out that nearly 30 percent of the incoming members claim an unspecified
denomination of Protestantism.
Catholics make up
22 percent of the newcomers to Congress while incumbents make up 29 percent.
The report concluded:
“There also are
nine members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Mormons] and
eight Orthodox Christians among the incumbents.
No newcomers
identify with either of these groups. Jewish members of Congress make up six
percent of all freshmen, identical to the share of Jewish returning members.
There are no Buddhists, Muslims, or Hindus among freshmen members of Congress,
and the religious affiliations of five congressional newcomers — including
Santos — are unknown.”
Interesting
breakdown. At least, on paper, there are a lot of God-fearing gents and ladies
all primed to do us well. Problem, of course, is that we can only see what is
on paper: numbers, breakdowns, and affiliations. You can’t see what is in their
hearts, and, as we all know, just because someone calls himself a believer, or
even a Christian, doesn’t mean that they are or will even act as if they do.
We can, however,
pray that these public affirmations of faith will play out in the real world to
our benefit and the glory of God.
If we want to
truly petition Congress we might first start by praying that the members will
be true to God’s will.
You can reach Mike at:
DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday on Faith On Trial at
https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/)
