When we talk about the representation of secular Americans in politics, we are talking about descriptive representation. In other words, we are trying to count how many members of the group are in some elective or appointed office. In the case of religious people, this is relatively straightforward: you say you are a Catholic, then you are counted as Catholic.

This is how the Pew Research Center counts the religious affiliation of members of Congress in its biennial report. Technically, they use the survey of members of Congress conducted by CQ Roll Call. When it comes to a community like the secular community, it is pretty tricky to know who belongs.

Secular Americans range from the religiously indifferent to the anti-clerical in their attitudes toward religion. They can be spiritual but not religious, or they can be nontheistic members of congregations.

The ‘Nones’ in Congress

What is a ‘none’? Technically it is people with no religious affiliation, regardless of beliefs. Self-identified atheists and agnostics are also counted as part of this group in what organizations like the Pew Research Center and PRRI call the “religiously unaffiliated.” Socioanalítica Research’s own 2020 Secular Voices Survey estimates that roughly two-thirds (65%) of the unaffiliated are nones while the rest are equally divided between self-identified atheists (17%) and agnostics (17%). Overall, the unaffiliated account for 26% of the adult population.

Out of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, we should expect about 113 unaffiliated members of the house. Of those, 74 should be just nones or unaffiliated, and the rest atheists and agnostics. Additionally, there should be 26 Senators (17 nones and 11 atheists/agnostics).

If you have seen the Faith on the Hill report, you know that the reality is very different. Only one member is listed as “unaffiliated,” while another member is listed as a “Humanist.” That is a total of two members out of 534 members polled. So, according to the official counts, the nones are falling 25 senators and 112 representatives short. Those two members are Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.)

However, if we look at the count in the Secular Legislators Dashboard, we find that there are three openly secular legislators. Moreover, though Rep. Huffman is counted among them, Sen. Sinema is not. The three members of Congress counted in the Secular Legislators Dashboard are Huffman, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and freshman Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.).

Who is a Secular Legislator?

Last week’s post explained how we built the dashboard. The religious identification data comes from legislators who identified themselves as members of the secular community to the folks at the Center for Freethought Equality.

Rep. Huffman is the only consistency between both counts, identifying as a Humanist to the CFE and CQ Roll Call. Pew, using the CQ Roll Call data, identifies Rep. Raskin as Jewish. However, Raskin identifies himself as Jewish and Humanist. I don’t know how the CQ Roll Call questionnaire is structured, but I bet that there is only one option presented to legislators. As for Rep. Sorensen, the CFE data identifies him as spiritual but not religious. It is not clear how he appears in the Pew tabulations, though they mention that five freshmen refused to state an affiliation. In the case of Sinema, she’s not counted among the secular because, well, a decade ago, she strongly rejected being a part of the secular community. While she’s officially a ‘none’ and for a moment may have partaken in activities with part of the secular community, it seems we were the canary in the coal mine: the first group that helped her rise to prominence to be discarded once no longer beneficial to her career.

Rep. Huffman has taken the mantle as the non-theistic member of Congress after the unseating of the late Rep. Pete Stark (also a Democrat from California), who was not a secular member of Congress according to the Pew reports because he was a Unitarian. Rep. Raskin has a dual identity, and while his primary religious identity is Jewish, he has been a champion of the secular community, co-founding with Rep. Huffman the Congressional Freethought Caucus.

I remember having conversations with secular friends and acquaintances about secular representation in Congress. Many expected that with the rise of the nones, many politicians would ride the wave. I thought it was a misreading of how politicians think. In the next issue, I will discuss my thoughts about secular representation and why it hasn’t exploded as the secular population has.

Other News:

• Last week I made a mistake; the release of the American Atheists 2022 State of the Secular State report is TONIGHT, so there’s still time to register.