What Is The Religious Makeup Of Congress?

The New Congress Is 91% Christian. That's Barely Budged Since 1961.

The Rev. Patrick Conroy, the chaplain of the House of Representatives, prayed as the House convened on Monday.

Credit... Al Drago/The New York Times

Jan. iii, 2017

Despite the steady decline in the percentage of Americans who place as Christian, the proportion of congressional members who say they are Christian has remained very shut to what it was in the early on 1960s, according to a new report.

The written report, released on Tuesday by Pew Research Eye, found that 91 percent of the members of the new session of Congress, the 115th, identified as Christian. More than than half a century ago, in 1961, 95 percent of United States representatives and senators said that they were Christian, the study said.

As the study notes, an analysis of the Full general Social Survey, a survey of Americans that has been taken regularly since 1972, suggests that the percentage of Christians among the United states of america population is declining, particularly among immature adults.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Aleksandra Sandstrom, the report's author, said that the steadiness of Congress's religious composition was striking given the broader change in the country's population.

Ms. Sandstrom said that information technology was particularly noteworthy that in that location had been just a tiny shift between the 114th Congress in 2015, and the 115th Congress today. In the before body, 491 members were Christian, compared with 485 in the current trunk.

"That really is telling, especially with the changing U.S. population and the very big alter in the presidency," she said. "Congress is really, at least religiously, staying very, very steady."

The data for the report was compiled by CQ Roll Call through questionnaires and telephone calls directed to the representatives.

In the electric current session of Congress, 291 of the 293 Republicans identify as Christians. (The two others are Jewish.) Democrats are significantly more diverse: While eighty percent identify every bit Christian, others are Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim. Representative Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the only member of Congress to declare herself to be religiously unaffiliated, is also a Democrat.

Despite the overall consistency of the body's religious makeup, Congress has mirrored the nation in becoming significantly less Protestant over the decades. In 1961, the body was 75 percent Protestant and 19 pct Catholic. Today, Congress is 56 percentage Protestant and 31 percent Cosmic.

Gregory A. Smith, an associate manager of research at Pew, said that it was difficult to say why the religious composition of Congress had stayed so steady, given that the trunk'southward makeup "is really the production of 535 separate elections, all of which have their own characteristics."

But he did point to data that showed that being religious could be politically advantageous.

"Lots of Americans tell united states of america, with respect to the presidency, that it's of import to them that the president share their religious behavior," he said, emphasizing that being someone who is not religious could exist a political liability.

A survey released in January 2016 found that most half of American adults said they would be less probable to vote for a hypothetical presidential candidate who does not believe in God.

Simply one member of Congress has e'er said that he does non believe in some form of God, co-ordinate to Pew. In 2007, Representative Pete Stark of California, a Democrat, publicly alleged that he did non believe in a supreme being. He was re-elected in 2010, but lost to a challenger from his own party, Eric Swalwell, in 2012.