Does religion matter?

Does religion matter?

(c) The Colbert Report

Religion has played a important part in politics worldwide, and it has been no different in the US Presidential Elections. Although the early elections (pre Civil War) were not fought on the religious platform, the last few elections has seen the rise of religious beliefs of the candidate as an important parameter. Religious affiliation of the candidate came into prominence in 2008 when Barack Obama was accused by some as being a Muslim by birth.

The following graph clearly shows how the %age representation of various religious denominations in the United States has changed dramatically over the course of history.

Religion	%age of Population	No. of presidents	%age of Presidents
Christian	78.4%	37	86%
Evangelical Protestant	26.3%	Baptist (4)	44.2%
		Methodist (3)
		Presbyterian (6)
		Quakers (2)
		Unitarian (4)
Mainline Protestant	18.1%	Congregationalist (1)	39.5%
		Dutch Reformed (2)
		Disciples of Christ (3)
		Episcopalian (11)
Black Church	6.9%	0	--
Catholic	23.9%	Roman Catholic (1)	2.3%
Mormon	1.7%	0	--
Jehovah's Witness	0.7%	0	--
Eastern Orthodox	0.6%	0	--
Other Christian	0.3%	0	--
Unaffiliated	16.1%	6	14%
Non-Christian Religions	4.7%	0	--
Don't know/refused answer	0.8%	0	--

Source: Wikipedia

Although there have been close to 40% Mainline Protestant Presidents, they make up no more than18% of the population. A similar case can be seen with the Evangelical Protestants. It is quite interesting to note that John F. Kennedy is the only Catholic ever to be elected the President of the USA in spite of Catholics making up nearly 24% of the electorate, the single largest denomination with no sub-denominations.

According to Wikipedia, Episcopalians are extraordinarily well represented among the presidents, compared to a current membership of about 2% of the population – partly because the Episcopal Church had been the Church of England before the American Revolution and was the state religion in some states (such as New York and Virginia). The first seven presidents listed as Episcopalians were all from Virginia. Unitarians and Quakers are also overrepresented, reflecting the importance of those colonial churches. Conversely, Baptists are underrepresented, a reflection of their quite recent expansion in numbers.

Among the current Republican candidates, two of the frontrunners come from the same Mormom faith, which makes up 1.7% of the electorate. They are Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman (who’ll start his campaign from the New Hampshire primaries scheduled to start in less than 10 hours). Now why does this affect the campaign in any way? That is because of the controversies that have surrounded their faith from time to time.

The Boston Globe and USA Today talked about the faith-adherence of both these candidates. While Romney is highly active and orthodox who has embraced the Mormon church quite unequivocally, Huntsman has called his adherence to Mormon practices “tough to define” and has described himself as someone who gets “satisfaction from many different types of religions and philosophies.’’

The Atlantic has attributed the Romney’s and Huntsman’s moderate stands on various issues to their religion, saying that the fourth largest denomination in the U.S. and the one richest per capita, has come of age at the national level. Although the state of Utah is overwhelmingly Mormon (60-60%), it also contains a constituency of liberal and moderate voters, and the influence of that demographic has been reflected in the more liberal positions taken by Huntsman on social issues (He came out in favour of gay civil unions). On a similar note, the Deseret News has reported that the fact that Romney and Huntsman are currently the only two Republican presidential candidates who embrace mainstream science on climate change and evolution is no coincidence and can be attributed to the absence of any official statement from the Mormon-church on this issue.

The state of Utah, despite having only 2.8 million people, was Mr. Romney’s third biggest source of money in 2008 — after Massachusetts, where he had been governor, and California — contributing more than $5.5 million. Mr. Romney also raised significant money in heavily Mormon areas of the West outside Utah, particularly in Idaho (26% Mormon) and Arizona (5% Mormon). In the 2008 Republican presidential primary in Utah, he got almost 90 percent of the vote. However, as governor of Utah, Huntsman’s pro-business agenda (cut taxes, balanced the state budget and reduce business regulations) was more successful with a conservative Utah legislature. The local economy boomed and many out-of-state businesses flocked to relocate to his state. Utah was rated the best managed state by the Pew Center on the States during Huntsman’s tenure (2005-2009). Huntsman was also a hit with the Democrats of Utah.

But if one of them actually wins the Republican nomination, he could have a hard time convincing the national voters. A Gallup poll released in June showed that 22% of Americans would not vote for their political party's presidential nominee next year if that person is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The percentage of those unwilling to vote for a Mormon has remained largely unchanged since 1967. However, this could be because never has in American history have two Mormon candidates stood for elections. Past Gallup polls found that in 1959, the year before the voters elected the first Catholic U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, one-quarter of Americans said they would not vote for a Catholic. That opposition fell to 21 percent by 1960 and to 13 percent by August 1961, Gallup reported. May be America will finally warm up to the idea of having a Mormon-president :)

Many other factors will surely come into play, factors like party loyalty or pocketbook concerns. As the Huffington Post claims, for Republicans beating Obama could be the most important factor of all. It is very possible that White evangelicals will more likely vote Republican, even if the party nominates someone who isn't known for strong faith commitments. So is quite prudent to say that faith will surely play an important role in determining the next President of the United States, just as it always has!

Varun Reddy.