Christians will make up a large majority of those serving in the 118th Congress, according to analysis from The Pew Research Centre. In a report issued by the Centre the polling organization explores the religious affiliations of members, finding 88% of the new Congress self-identifies with some form of Christianity. These religious demographics are noteworthy, considering just 63% of Americans call themselves Christian. Thus, the percentage of Christians in Congress outpaces the proportion of citizens claiming the same religious designation. Denominational percentages and designations are also quite interesting, with Protestants outpacing other religious cohorts. There are 303 Protestants in the new Congress, an increase of six from the previous Congress. This is the first time since 2015-2016 that the number has topped 300 Pew noted in its report. “The new Congress has 148 Catholics, 10 fewer than the previous Congress.”
Despite the decrease, Catholics still comprise about 28% of Congress, outpacing the 21% of Americans who identify as Catholic. Meanwhile, there are 9 members in Congress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 8 Orthodox Christians, and 1 Messianic Jew. Just 65 members of Congress are not Christian. Among those, 33 are Jewish, accounting for 6% of Congress and outpacing the 3% of Americans who call themselves Jewish. Among the non-Christians, there are also 3 Muslims, 2 Buddhists, 1 religiously unaffiliated, and 1 humanist. An additional 20 members of Congress have “unknown religious affiliations,” according to Pew. These proportions paint an interesting picture when comparing the composition of Congress to the general population. While Christianity, has dwindled from 78% of the U.S. public in 2007 to the 63% currently observed, the Christian composition of Congress has barely changed in recent years.
Source: Faithwire
Print This Post
Comments are closed