The charts above are from the Pew Research Center. They show the religious make-up of the United States 116th Congress.
Many christians, especially evangelicals, like to claim they are being discriminated against in this country. That is simply not true, and the make-up of Congress reflects that. Christians have a significantly higher proportion of Congress than they do in the U.S. population -- and that is true of both protestants and catholics.
This erroneous belief that they are discriminated against probably springs from the extension of equal rights to groups that many christians discriminated against themselves (using religion as a justification for that discrimination). What they don't seem to understand is that granting equal rights to others doesn't take any rights away from them.
Our Constitution is not a religious document, and the Founding Fathers never meant for it to be one. They went out of their way to create a secular government that would allow all religious people the freedom to practice their religion -- and allow those who are not a part of any religion to be free from religious intolerance. We have not always lived up to those ideals, but we are making progress toward that.
Being prevented from writing your own religious principles and dogma into law is NOT discrimination. It is the constitutional protection of the right of ALL Americans to be free (to practice or not practice any religion).
I am just thankful that the non-religious still have some rights in this country. And someday, we might actually have adequate representation in this country's Congress. Each generation is less religious than the one that came before it, and someday this will truly be a secular country with a secular Congress -- just like the Founding Fathers dreamed.
That under-representation in the unaffiliated group is dramatic. I wonder what the real number is. It reminds me of Alan Alda's line from the old episode of "West Wing":
ReplyDelete"I want to warn everyone in the press and all the voters out there if you demand expressions of religious faith from politicians, you are just begging to be lied to. They won't all lie to you but a lot of them will. And it will be the easiest lie they ever had to tell to get your votes."
I must protest your identification of evangelicals as Christians. They are not. They do not espouse Christ’s values or ideals. They use religion as a cover for their bigotry and hate. Until the media stops their dishonest portrayal of evangelicals then Christians are being unfairly represented not overrepresented.
ReplyDelete