Thursday, January 17, 2013

The 113th Is The Most Religiously Diverse Congress Ever

Dwayne Leslie recently wrote about the 113th Congress and how religiously diverse it is.
... it is the most religiously diverse ever. How amazing that the first Hindu and first Buddhist ever elected to Congress achieved that status in the same election! Additionally, Dr. Raul Ruiz (CA-36) became just the fifth Seventh-day Adventist to be elected to Congress.
He writes about Congress now having a Hindu[1] and a Buddhist[2] as if it's a sign of incredible diversity.  He doesn't mention the 2 Muslims[3], the other Hindu[4], or the "none"[5].  But he did list a Seventh-day Adventist as part of the diversity without mentioning the fact that it's a type of Christian[6].  That may seem weird if you don't notice that he works for them[7].

So, if we remove the Christian he listed and add in the non-Christians he left out, we have 6 people[8].  Out of 535.  In other words, unless I've missed one, the 113th Congress is 99.08% Christian and the Senate is 99%, combining to be 99.07% Christian.  Even if I missed 10 non-Christians, it would still be 97.2% Christian.

Only in America, with the sense of entitlement many of our Christians have, can that be considered diversity worth celebrating.  I think we can do better.

(Thanks to @HuffPostRelig)

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1.  Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI-2)
2.  Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI-1)
3.  Keith Ellison (D-MN-5)André Carson (D-IN-7)
4.  Mazie Hirono (D-HI), the only Senator listed here.
5.  Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ-9)
6.  http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/index.html
7.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dwayne-leslie/
8.  All 6 are Democrats.  It's not unreasonable to think that is not a coincidence.

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