Why are American politicians more pious than their constituents?

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Why are American politicians more pious than their constituents?

As Americans ditch the church, Congress still fills the pews
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Feb 8th 2021





AMERICA’S CONSTITUTION is explicit: “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office.” Yet Americans expect piety from their politicians. During the presidential election of 1800, William Linn, the first chaplain of the House of Representatives, argued that Thomas Jefferson was unqualified for office because of his “rejection of the Christian Religion”. Jefferson, a staunch believer in the separation of church and state, rejected most orthodox teachings and, later in life, assembled his own Bible expunged of miracles and other supernatural “perversions”. The election of such a man, Linn warned, would “destroy religion, introduce immorality and loosen all the bonds of society.” (It did not.)

America’s religious balance has changed since then. Today about 65% of Americans identify as Christian, down from 90% 50 years ago. The religiously unaffiliated—including atheists, agnostics and those without allegiance to a particular creed—are the fastest-growing group, accounting for about a quarter of the population. American politics does not reflect these changes, though. Except for Jefferson and perhaps Abraham Lincoln, all presidents have belonged to a church. The new president, Joe Biden, is Catholic, and nearly nine in ten lawmakers in Congress say they are Christian (see chart). Only two, Kyrsten Sinema, a senator from Arizona, and Jared Huffman, a congressman from California, claim no religious affiliation, identifying as “unaffiliated” and “humanist”, respectively.