Catholics Rule Congress, But Others Catching Up

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 9:23 AM

By: Rick Pedraza Article Font Size

Protestants, who account for more than half of the upcoming 111th Congress at 54 percent, are losing ground quickly to other religious affiliations that make up today's diverse American population, according to a recently published study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Using data for Congress from Congressional Quarterly, the Pew study shows Catholics to be the single largest religious group, accounting for 30 percent of lawmakers who will take office on Jan. 6.

Protestants, collectively, are broken into more than a dozen denominations, including Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. They constitute 51.3 percent of the U.S. adult population, compared with 24 percent of all the U.S. population who profess to be Catholic.

The study, entitled “Faith on the Hill,â€