The Religious Makeup of the 119th Congress
The new Congress is as religiously diverse as ever. That's not saying much.
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With the new members of the House scheduled to be sworn in today, we can once again look at the religious makeup of our government and see how representative it is of America as a whole.
The Pew Research Center, which issues a report on the religious makeup of Congress every two years, just released its latest version yesterday, taking data from a CQ Roll Call questionnaire.
Here's what we now know about the religious affiliations of the 119th Congress: While America has become markedly less religious over time, Congress is just as religious as ever. While Christians make up 62% of the country, they make up 87% of Congress. Similarly, 2% of America is Jewish, but Jews make up 6% of Congress.
On the other side, while 28% of the country is not affiliated with any religion, the “Unaffiliated” make up less than 1% of Congress.
But there is some exciting news in there for people who get excited by this stuff (I say to myself in the mirror): That tiny group of “Nones” is actually an improvement from the previous Congress. Last time around, we had Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) as the only “Humanist” on the list. The only other openly non-religious member of Congress was Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who was “Unaffiliated.”
This time around, Sinema is (thankfully) gone, and the openly “Unaffiliated” cohort has increased with three new members: Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), who’s actually agnostic; Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA); and Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ).
Yes, Hamadeh is a Republican. Pew says that he described himself as “Non-denominational not in a particular faith”… which, honestly, is more confusing than anything.
All of this is happening in the House; the Senate has no representation whatsoever from the “None” camp. (Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois did not answer the religion question.)
The differences become even more stark when you separate the parties.
98% of Republicans are Christian. Another 1% are Jewish. Only one, Hamadeh, is “Unaffiliated.”
The Democrats have a little more religious diversity. 75% are Christian, 11% are Jewish, and the rest are a mix of smaller faiths, no religious faith, and not answering the religion question.
You might ask: What about the Congressional Freethought Caucus? Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is, with Rep. Huffman, one of the co-founders of the CFC, the group that advocates for a secular government and opposes discrimination against atheists. But whatever he believes in private, he uses the label "Jewish." It may be a secular form of Judaism, but on paper, there's no distinction. (His approach echoes that of former Rep. Barney Frank. After Frank left office, he said that while he didn't believe in God, he also didn't like the word "atheist" as a descriptor for himself and never used it, in part, out of fear that the Jewish community would see him as antisemitic. Raskin said in 2016 that he was "one hundred percent Jewish," "emphatically Jewish," and that "I’ve never called myself an atheist." Ironically, none of that means he's not an atheist.)
So, to summarize, the new Congress has one Humanist, three self-described "Unaffiliated" members of the House (at least one of whom is agnostic), and a whole bunch of legislators who (I'm sure) are probably in the closet about their non-religiosity.
Who are the 21 members of Congress who chose not to answer the religion question? (An asterisk denotes a newly elected member.)
Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA)*
Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO)
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL)
Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL)
Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL)
Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS)
Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD)*
Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME)
Rep. Herb Conaway (D-NJ)*
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM)
Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY)*
Rep. David Taylor (R-OH)*
Rep. Maxine E. Dexter (D-OR)*
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI)
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Some of the people no longer on the list include Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who lost his primary; Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who was kicked out for lying about All The Things; Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who retired; and Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), who retired for health reasons.
Rep. Magaziner, as Pew notes, didn’t answer the religion question but has identified as “Jewish” in public statements. Make of that what you will.
Interestingly enough, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) did not answer the religion question two years ago but says she is “Jewish” this time around.
Another point of interest: The Congressional Freethought Caucus is now at 23 members. That number will shrink with the retirement of Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) and the election loss of Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA). Of those 21 left, only Casten, Pocan, and Jayapal are on the list above (in addition to Huffman). The remaining members include four Jews, four Catholics, three Episcopalians, a Lutheran, a Methodist, a Baptist, an unspecified Protestant, a Muslim, and a Buddhist (Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia). There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, since they’re committed to defending church/state separation and fighting anti-atheist discrimination.
It’s not clear if any of the three new “Unaffiliated” members of the House will join the Caucus.
To respond to the inevitable criticism, I agree that this is ultimately a superficial way of viewing the legislators. Everything I'm writing here is about symbolism. There is a lot of importance in the idea of having religious diversity in public office, especially with openly non-religious politicians. I believe that would go a long way in decreasing the anti-atheist stigma that exists in our society because government is one of the few areas where an open atheist would be both in a position of prominence and in a job where helping others (as opposed to just advocating for non-belief) is the job description.
As Congress becomes less Christian and more diverse, which it has been doing (albeit very slowly), it better reflects the American people.
At the same time, what really matters is how those legislators would vote on issues that matter to most of us. A Republican atheist who votes against women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and church/state separation would be fighting against the wishes of most people who identify as non-religious. It wouldn't be something to celebrate. And there are so many religious Democrats who do a wonderful job fighting for progressive causes. As long as they keep doing that, I don't really care how they self-identify.
Still, it would be nice to have more members of Congress willing to admit they don't buy into faith-based nonsense.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
Doesn't matter what they call their particular breed of christain. They all are part of a death cult whose objective is the end of all life on the planet. Never trust a group whose idea of paradise is watching those they hate suffer for eternity.
I'd like to say that I'm encouraged by the numbers represented here, but honestly, I'm not. It would be one thing if congresspeople studiously set their faith aside when doing their duties, but we all know they DON'T. Religious believers still dominate the US legislature and, I have no doubt, still bring their beliefs into Congress and into the bills they propose, write, and pass.
And that means that we have to be that much more active in calling them on their behavior when they create such bills. The problem is the pending Republican majority in both houses, never mind the manipulative dipshit about to once again occupy the White House. Even worse, such people are unlikely to listen to godless heathens like us, so we have to find other ways to protest and resist.
I've said it before and will say it again: I am not at all sanguine about the next four years.