THE new membership of the United States Congress is composed overwhelmingly of Protestant Christians — far more so than the proportion of Christians among the general public, a new study shows.
The religious make-up of the Senate and House of Representatives is 87 per cent Christian, which is down one percentage point on the previous House membership, Pew Research has found.
Their study charts a very gradual decline in religious affiliation of elected members, from 92 per cent a decade ago.
But, when compared with religious affiliation in the general public in the US, which stands at 62 per cent, lawmakers of this 119th Congress are far more “heavily Christian”, Pew’s report concludes.
Three in ten Americans say that their religion is “nothing in particular”, but fewer than one per cent of members of Congress say this. Three members say that they have no religious affiliation.
The study by Pew is of data from CQ Roll Call, based on questionnaires sent to every member of Congress. It says of the 461 Christians in Congress, 295 are Protestant, down eight from the last session, although they still make up 55 per cent of members. Within this, Baptists are the largest group, with 75 members. Episcopalians number 22. Many Protestants do not specify a denomination, saying only Christian or Evangelical Protestant: 101 members said this. The number of of those identifying as Catholics has increased slightly by two, to 150.
Nine members are Mormon, 32 are Jewish, four are Muslim, and four are Hindu. Just one member identifies as a humanist.
The study also compared the religious make-up of the House of Representatives with the Senate. “Most members of the House and Senate are Christians, with the House just slightly more Christian than the Senate (88% vs. 87%). And both chambers have a Protestant majority — 55% of representatives are Protestant, as are 59% of senators,” the report says.
When analysed by party, 99 per cent of Republicans are Christian; more than two-thirds of them say that they are Protestant.
Democrats also have more Christians than the US public overall: 78 per cent as opposed to 65 per cent. Democrats are less likely to be Protestant: 43 per cent identify in this way. Catholics make up a higher share of Democrats than they do among Republicans: 34 per cent to 26 per cent.
The study also noted that members elected for the first time are more Christian than those re-elected, with an increase in those saying that they are Protestant Christian but not specifying a denomination.
The researchers conclude: “While the U.S. population continues to become less Christian, Congress has held relatively steady in recent years and has remained heavily Christian. In the 87th Congress (which began in 1961), the earliest for which aggregated religion data is available, 95% of members were Christian, which closely matched the roughly 93% of Americans who identified the same way at the time, according to historical religion data from Gallup.
“Since the early ’60s, there has been a substantial decline in the share of U.S. adults who identify as Christian, but just a 7-point drop in the share of members of Congress who identify that way.”