Religion gets inserted into political campaigns from time to time. We often read and hear people proclaim that the U.S. is a Christian nation. A case can be made to substantiate that claim. Of course a liberal definition of Christian is useful since a number of those involved in burning witches at the stake considered themselves Christians. Nevertheless, here are some statistics.
Of the 42 men who have served as President, 38 are listed as being a member of a Christian denomination. The other four are listed as Unitarian, a church of “freethinkers” that follow some Christian practices but do not claim to be Christians and rejects belief in the Holy Trinity.
Half of the 42 Presidents have been of two major denominations as 11 have been Episcopalians and 10 have been Presbyterians.
The other denominations are Methodist 5, Baptist 4, Unitarian 4, Disciples of Christ 3, Dutch Reform 2, Quaker 2, Congregationalist 2, Roman Catholic 1 and Jehovah’s Witness 1.
Of the 46 Vice Presidents 12 have been Presbyterian and 10 Episcopalian. The other denominations of vice presidents are Dutch Reform, Congregationalist, Methodist and Baptist 4, Unitarian 3, Lutheran 1, Disciples of Christ 1, Quaker 1, unknown protestant 8.
While only one Roman Catholic is listed among the Presidents and Vice Presidents, Roman Catholics head the list of the other two branches of the Federal Government. In the 107 Congress (The latest for which there are numbers) there were 154 Roman Catholic Senators and Representatives. The next highest total is 75 Baptists. There were 61 Methodists, 52 Presbyterian, 42 Episcopalians and 37 Jewish. Only four were listed as unspecified but five listed Christian with no further specification, and 21 listed Protestant with no further specification.
It is interesting to note that in the First Congress, consisting of 95 Senators and Representatives, there were only three Roman Catholics. Episcopalian (Anglican) accounted for 37. The religious choice of 25 members was unknown.
Of the present nine members of the Supreme Court, five are Roman Catholic, two are Jewish, one is an Episcopalian and one is a Protestant. Of the first 108 justices, 35 were Episcopalians, 19 were Presbyterians, 11 were Roman Catholics and 10 were Unitarians. Only one was not a member of any church. The others were Jewish 7, Methodist 5, Baptist 3, Congregationalist 2, Disciples of Christ2, Lutheran 1, Quaker 1, Huguenot 1, 13 Protestant not further defined.
If regular attendance at a Christian church is any indication of a Christian nation, the United States is only 11th with a 44 percent attendance record. Nigeria is the leader with 89 percent and Ireland is close behind at 84 percent. Nigeria is strongly Anglican while Ireland is strongly Roman Catholic.
Among North America nations, Mexico is a trifle ahead of the U.S. at 48 percent but Canada is behind at 38 percent.
Western Europe has some of the grandest Christian churches in the world but they must be pretty empty most of the time. All but Italy has much lower attendance records than the U.S. and even Italy, the Home of the Vatican, is just one percentage point higher than the U.S. Regular Church attendance for The Netherlands is 35 percent, Austria 30 percent, United Kingdom 27 percent, Spain 25 percent, France 21 percent, Switzerland 16 percent, Denmark 5 percent, Norway 5 percent, Latvia 5 percent; Finland 4 percent and Sweden 4 percent.
With the exception of Poland at 55 percent, Eastern Europe isn’t much better.
No one can deny that one can find a lot of sin in the U.S. But if there were no sin, there would be no need for Christianity.
Trivia Time
Who is credited with first using the term “Bible Belt?” Answer to last question. The first annual salary for President of the United States was $25,000. The first annual salary for Vice President was $5,000.
George Frasher, an independent columnist, is a retired News-Leader Inc. editor and may be contacted at 337-238-3433, E-mail frasher@cebridge.net.
