KalahariLog

The US constitution states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." However, according to the Secular Coalition for America Representative Pete Stark is the first member of Congress to acknowledge nontheism. Aparently, all others (100 senators and 435 congressmen) are theists.

Ten senators and twenty seven representatives are Jewish; there is now one Muslim representatives, which leaves 497 Christians, or about 93%.The first ever Muslim congressman, Keith Ellison, was elected last fall. A big kerfuffle resulted when he wanted to use the Quran in the swearing-in ceremony. Another congressman, Virgil Goode, wrote a letter saying that to "preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States," an immigration overhaul was necessary to avoid "many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Quran." While nearly everybody else uses the bible in the swear-in ceremony, some elect not to use anything, and Ellison was pressed to join that group.

The following Gallup 2007 survey adds the following startling numbers: Asked if they'd be willing to vote for a "generally well-qualified" presidential candidate with the followign characterisitics, Americans answered:
Black: 94%
Jewish: 92%
A woman: 88%
Hispanic: 87%
Mormon: 72%
Married for third time: 67%
72 years of age: 57%
A homosexual: 55%
An atheist: 45%

And my favorite of the recent stories about Americans and religion is a Washington Post review of Stephen Prothero's book Religious Literacy. about religion in the US subtitled "Americans believe in religion -- but know little about it.". The review begins like this:


The United States is the most religious nation in the developed world, if religiosity is measured by belief in all things supernatural -- from God and the Virgin Birth to the humbler workings of angels and demons. Americans are also the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

Here are a few more stunners from the review


Approximately 75 percent of adults, according to polls cited by Prothero, mistakenly believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." More than 10 percent think that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. Only half can name even one of the four Gospels, and -- a finding that will surprise many -- evangelical Christians are only slightly more knowledgeable than their non-evangelical counterparts.

Which comes to show that as there is at least one category that the US will be number one for many years to come: anything weird that has to do with religion.