We would often hear the right talk about the left intolerance against religious people or people of faith but is that really true? When I said conservative or the right, I am usually referring to the south, given that there are conservatives in other states too, but they are not as conservative as the south.
I decided to do an investigation about the religious affliction of the democrats in the senate and the house. Here are my results:
Democratic US Senators:
Roman Catholic: 16
Jewish: 9
Protestants:
Lutheran: 3
Baptist:
Southern Baptist: 1
Baptist (not afflicted with southern Baptist): 0
Latter Day Saint: 1
Methodist: 5
United Church of Christ/congregations: 4
Unitarian: 1
Presbyterian: 2
Evangelical: 1
Episcopalian: 4
Other Christian churches: 3
Democratic members of the House of Representatives:
Eastern Orthodox: 3
Roman Catholic: 54+
Jewish: 25
Protestants: Too lazy to count for more, but very diverse!
Lutheran: 6
Presbyterian: 5
Evangelical: 1
Episcopalian: 2
Baptist:
Southern Baptist:
Baptist (not afflicted with Southern Baptism): 17
Latter Day Saints:
Society of Friends: 1
United Church of Christ:
Methodist: 14
Unitarian:
Other Christian churches: 15
Muslim: 2
Atheist: 1
Buddhism: 2
Did you know that there is only one Jewish republican in the house? I know, pretty shocking given that the conservative south is the most suppose vocal supporter of Israel. Of course, I am only talking about elected officials since I do acknowledge that there are Jewish republican other there too but many of them are not in office.
When I look at the south, the supposed most religious of them all, it seems to me that no roman catholic or Jew had ever been elected as senator or governor, of course there a few exception, such as the outer southern states. These people that said that progressives are bigoted toward people of faith had themselves never voted for a person who is afflicted with Judaism, Roman Catholicism, or others. In fact, these conservatives who often cry victimization were the first one to demand that congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN) resign because he chose to use the Koran instead of bible during his private swearing oath ceremony.
So what do these conservatives means when they said that democrats, liberals, or progressive are intolerant toward people of faith. It seems to be that there are more of a variety of people of faith who belong to different churches, synagogue, or mosque that are often voted in by progressives and liberals while there seem to be a limited groups of Christians represented by the conservative south. Those that are conservative who belong to roman Catholicism or Judaism, or others can only get elected in states outside of the south, like Pennsylvania, the liberal northeastern states, the Midwest, the liberal pacific ocean states, or the mountain states. Many of these representatives are often considered Republican in names only (RINO) by the conservative south.
So what about you? What do you think the conservative southern Christians means when they said progressive, liberals, and democrats are intolerant toward people of faith? If you look at all the people elected into office, there are more of a diverse group of Christians and other religious minorities in the Democratic Party than the conservative Republican Party. The majority leader in the senate is a Mormon and the speaker of the house a female catholic.
A Mormon, like former governor Mitt Romney was not even able to make it as republican presidential nominee given the hostility toward him by the religious conservative south. Any person who don't belong to protestant churches would find it difficult to get nominated in south let alone the primary given that they shall face hostility by the conservative south. Now I do acknowledge that there are conservatives who are indifference toward the religious affliction of candidate so long as they are a Christian and agree with their views, but many of them happen to be northerners or from the west.
Also, what is your thought on this idea that I read from a book:
Let said that congress passed a law saying that if any person who commits a crime, that person immediate family, their children and grandchildren shall be denied the right to vote for they had sin and are to be punish just like in the bible? I think there is somewhere in the bible that said something about sin going to the fourth or fifth generation for a person who doesn't repent or had sin?
Let said that congress passed a law or the Supreme Court decided that any speech, publication, or teaching that violate a person first amendment religious belief should be censor. For example, a newspaper publish an article that said that the bible is silence on contraceptive or the usage of artificial contraceptive, they than can be censor or sue given that they violate a person religious belief that no mention of artificial contraceptive in the bible means that it should not exist.
I know that many of these example had already been decided but let's just said that it came too passed. Do you think congress or the court would ever pass something like this?
