Catholics, Jews, Mormons Over-represented
A study of the religious composition of the 112th Congress shows Baptists, the second largest religious denomination in the United States, are underrepre-sented in Congress based on their adult percentage of the U. S. population.
The study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion shows that adult Baptists make up 17.2 percent of American adults, but are represented in the U. S. House of Representatives by only 13.8 percent of House members and 8 percent of the Senate.
In contrast, Catholics who make up 23.9 percent of the adult population hold 33.3 percent of the House seats and 24 percent of the seats in the Senate.
Jews are even better represented than Catholics. They make up only 1.7 percent of the adult population, but occupy 6.2 percent of the House seats and a whopping 12 percent of the Senate. Jews outnumber Baptists in the Senate 12 to 8 despite Baptists outnumbering Jews in the general U. S. population 10 to 1.
The study erroneously identifies Baptists as one of 16 “Protestant” groups and concludes that “while 69 percent of Republicans are Protestant, only 34 percent of Democrats are Protestant.”
Catholics make up 34 percent of the Democrats in Congress while they total only 25 percent of Republicans.
There are 27 Jewish members of the House and 12 in the Senate. All Jews except one House member are Democrats or Independents voting with Democrats except for the one Republican House member.
The number of Catholics and Baptists in the Congress increased slightly with the election of 2010.
The study concludes that: “In many ways, the changes in religious makeup of Congress during the last half-century mirrors broader changes in American society. Congress, like the nation as a whole, has become much less Protestant and more religiously diverse. The number of Protestants in Congress has dropped from nearly three-quarters (74 percent) in 1961 to 57 percent today.”
The Pew study makes no effort to explain why so few Baptists serve in Congress, however it is known that Baptist pastors in general keep an arms distance from politics. Some church leaders fear jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. Others use the excuse that politics is a crooked and evil enterprise and inappropriate for involvement of Christians. Some Christians use the excuse that they are leaving the choice of government leaders up to God and don’t bother to seek facts about issues and candidates and become informed voters.
Many Christians complain that moral and ethical problems are at the root of the current crises in Washington, D. C. How did that come about? Throughout the history of our republic, Christians have been among the leaders to set moral and ethical standards.
Baptists are under-represented in Congress and other important Christian denominations have little or no representation in our national government.
Statistics published in the Pew study indicate that Pentecostals, who make up 4.4 percent of the adult population of the United States, more than the total of all Mormons and Jews combined, have no representation in either the U. S. House or Senate.
The question remains; who is responsible for immoral and unethical government? Is it those who participate in choosing elected officials or those who fail to participate and leave the decisions to others?
