Congress’s religious profile unaltered
An influx of Republicans has colored the House of Representatives
red, but the midterm elections did little to alter the religious
composition of Capitol Hill.
Like the U.S. public, Protestants
make up more than half (57 percent) of the 112th Congress, and Catholics
constitute roughly a quarter (29 percent), according to a study by the
nonpartisan Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
The number of
Protestants in Congress has slowly dropped from 394 in the early 1960s
to 304 in 2011, declining by several percentage points each decade. This
year's congressional class added 12 Protestants, however.
