Only 71 percent of Americans now identify as Christian, but a whopping 91 percent of elected members of Congress consider themselves Christian, according to the Pew report. This isn’t due to underrepresentation of faiths such as Islam, Hinduism or Judaism, however but entirely from underrepresentation of those who are not affiliated with any ‘/’religion.
“The analysis finds that some religious groups, including Protestants, Catholics and Jews, have greater representation in Congress than in the general population,” Aleksandra Sandstorm wrote in the Pew Research Center explication of the findings. “The group that is most notably underrepresented is the religiously unaffiliated. This group — also known as religious ‘nones’ — now accounts for 23% of the general public but just 0.2 % of Congress.”
There’s only one member of Congress, Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who identifies as religiously unaffiliated. [...]
Now imagine if there were a hefty number of nonreligious people in Congress, and they felt empowered to speak out when issues touching on religious belief cropped up in the legislative arena. Nonreligious or unaffiliated representatives, for instance, could argue that religiously motivated bills restricting abortion rights or undermining science education or funding were a direct attack on their personal right to not live under the dictates of a religion. Liberal believers are great, but having a secular team that includes actual nonbelievers and “unchurched” people would add oomph to the arguments against using the government to push dogmas of faith.
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