--- title: America is Getting More Non-Religious, But Congress Is Not description: About one-in-five Americans is religiously unaffiliated, but they aren't represented among congressional lawmakers. canonical: https://time.com/3653951/congress-religious-breakdown/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-05T18:46:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:17:07.638Z article:section: Politics og:title: America is Getting More Non-Religious, But Congress Is Not og:description: About one-in-five Americans is religiously unaffiliated, but they aren't represented among congressional lawmakers. og:url: https://time.com/3653951/congress-religious-breakdown/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb611f808d66ced4/69877828f887dc6469e8954d/capitol-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Congress Spending og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: America is Getting More Non-Religious, But Congress Is Not twitter:description: About one-in-five Americans is religiously unaffiliated, but they aren't represented among congressional lawmakers. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb611f808d66ced4/69877828f887dc6469e8954d/capitol-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # America Is Getting More Non-Religious, But Congress Is Not > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 5, 2015 6:46 PM UTC  The Capitol Dome and the Capitol Christmas Tree are illuminated in Washington D.C. on Dec. 11, 2014. The Capitol Dome and the Capitol Christmas Tree are illuminated in Washington D.C. on Dec. 11, 2014. J. Scott Applewhite—AP by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 5, 2015 6:46 PM UTC Congress changed a fair amount after the recent elections, with Republicans taking over the Senate and a slew of retirements from both parties. But in one major way, the new crop of lawmakers being sworn in tomorrow will be the same as ever: they are religious. About 92% of members in the now- GOP controlled House and Senate identify as Christian, according to a new [Pew Research Center](http://www.pewforum.org/2015/01/05/faith-on-the-hill/) study, only a small bump from the 90% Christian 113th Congress. Over half of members are Protestant and about a third are Catholic, both of which are among the most common religious affiliations among American adults. But despite the growing number of Americans who don’t affiliate with any religion, there will be very few lawmakers who are not religious. According to the data provided by the Pew Research Center and CQ Roll Call, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is the only member of Congress who currently identifies herself as religiously unaffiliated. (Sinema, however, also doesn’t consider herself a nonbeliever; she says she prefers a “[secular approach](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/11/09/breaking-kyrsten-sinema-is-not-an-atheist/).”) By comparison, [about 20 percent of Americans](http://www.pewforum.org/2015/01/05/faith-on-the-hill/) say they are religiously unaffiliated. Only two known atheists have served in Congress in recent years: Democratic Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Pete Stark of California, though Frank didn’t announce his atheism until after leaving office. As the _Huffington Post_ [notes](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/atheists-in-congress%5Fn%5F3944108.html), he was more comfortable coming out as the first openly gay member of Congress in 1987 than coming out as a nonbeliever in 2012. Smaller religious groups including Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism are more proportionately represented in Congress: according to the data about 2% of American adults are Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu, and 1% of Congressional members practice those faiths. There are fewer Jews in the 114th Congress than in the 113th, but 5% of Congress members are Jewish compared to 2% of the American public, according to Pew. Check out the religious breakdown of the 114th Congress [below](http://www.pewforum.org/2015/01/05/faith-on-the-hill/pr%5F15-01-05%5Freligioncongress-02-new/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3653951/congress-religious-breakdown/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3653951/congress-religious-breakdown/"},"headline":"America Is Getting More Non-Religious, But Congress Is Not","datePublished":"2015-01-05T18:46:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:17:07.638Z","description":"About one-in-five Americans don’t consider themselves members of any particular religion, but in the 114th Congress there’s only one.","url":"https://time.com/3653951/congress-religious-breakdown/","keywords":["Congress","Religion"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb611f808d66ced4/69877828f887dc6469e8954d/capitol-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb611f808d66ced4/69877828f887dc6469e8954d/capitol-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Congress Spending","caption":"Congress Spending","creditText":"J. 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