Republican Congressional Delegation now 100% Christian

[eric82oslo]

Washington Post has a great piece on the Congress members' religious affiliation today. It shows, among many other things, that Eric Cantor is the only Republican in both houses who's not a self-proclaimed Christian. Believe it or not, but every single one of the remaining 274 Republican Senators and Congressmembers claim to be one or another form of Christian. So the chance is considerable that once Cantor leaves the House, the Republican delegation will go from being 99.64% Christian to becoming 100% Christian. On the other hand, the Democratic delegation in both houses is "only" 80.5% Christian.

Among the remaining 19.5% non-Christian Democrats, we find 32 Jews, 11 who's either unaffiliated or refused to reveal a religion, 3 Buddhists, 2 Muslims, one Hindu and one Unitarian Universialist (not quite sure what that is). Democrats are also much more Catholic than Republicans. While 36.5% of Democrats in Congress are Catholics - not far behind the 42% Democrats who say they are Protestants - only 25.2% of Republicans are Catholic, far, far behind the stunning 69.1% who say they're Protestants. Republicans also have more Mormon Congress members, 4.3% compared to just 1.2% of Democrats elected to Congress. Another highly eye-catching fact is that one in five Democratic Senators are in fact Jewish. 11 of the 53/55 Democratic Senators are Jewish. That's 20%. I guess the number of Americans with a Jewish denomination is somewhere between 1% and 2% only, just slightly more than 1% I think.

Here's the piece: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/06/11/the-gop-just-lost-its-only-non-christian-in-congress/

[eric82oslo]

Well, how about that. I didn't realize that Cantor was the only non-Christian Republican in Congress.

P.S. - Unitarian Universalists are basically a liberal religion that believe everyone should find their own path to spirituality.

I see from Wikipedia that no less than four US presidents were Unitarians; John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft.

Apparently they - the Unitarians that is - were very active in abolitionism and the women's movement.

[eric82oslo]

Surely some of them are Mormons?

Yep, but that's still a Christian denomination, or at least they're classified as such by Pew Research/Washington Post. Originally it was a Protestant variant, but today I guess it's fair to say it's a religion on it's own, right? Can't say I know too much about it though.

From Wiki: "Mormonism categorizes itself within Christianity, and Mormons self-identify as Christian. For some who define Christianity within the doctrines of Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Protestantism, Mormonism's differences place it outside the umbrella of Christianity. Mormons see Jesus Christ as the premier figure of their religion."

[eric82oslo]

I wonder who the sole Democratic Unitarian in Congress might be.

[eric82oslo]

Apparently Kyrsten Sinema, the bisexual Arizonian Congresswoman, is the only self-confessed atheist/agnostic in Congress.

[eric82oslo]

I wonder who the sole Democratic Unitarian in Congress might be.

Apparently Rep. Ami Bera of California.

Thanks. I loved the map btw.



Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic House member from Hawaii, has her Picture there multiplied by four; for being woman, Asian, one of four born in the 1980s and for being the very first Hinduist elected to Congress.

[eric82oslo]

Not really surprising. The republican party is a christian party. It was founded as such, too.

Poor Libertarians though.
They're obviously in the wrong party.

[eric82oslo]

If Mormonism is Christianity, North Korea is a democracy.

Its Christology is basically Arian. How is that less any Christian than, say, Jehovah's Witnesses or Oneness Pentecostalism?

Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian, either.  I've never heard of Oneness Pentecostalism, but I would assume they are not, either.

How are Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses not Christian?  Is it just because they created their doctrines and made up their beliefs more recently than other Christian denominations?

They have a very different understanding of who Jesus is than the rest of the Christian denominations. So different that it is really questionable whether they can be considered Christian, as the divinity of Christ is one iof the really big main points of Christianity.

Who died and made you the boss of Christianity?  I don't think it's up to you to decide who qualifies as a Christian and when something is different enough to become a separate religion.  Mormons and JWs believe in the divinity of Jesus and the Christian scriptures.  That seems like enough.  And, it's just rude to tell Mormons and JWs what religion they are.  Let them decide what religion they are for themselves.

Mormons and Jehovas Witnesses both say they are utterly Christians. So who could be the rude one here? I completely hate all forms of religion, and my British-Dutch-Egyptian Jehovas Witness friend is the most obnoxious ever when it comes to visual propaganda and straight out lying, though I would never ever claim I've ever met a more deeply Christian person than him, cause he literally lives and breathes through his Bible, despite all of his constant gay sins. Or perhaps because of them.