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This post will look at the demographics of America’s governors by age, as of August 2012. All in all, this series on the demographics of America’s governors examines:
- Religion
Outside of place of birth, this was the hardest category to get information on. Unlike race and gender, which are pretty obvious, your face doesn’t indicate which religion you are.
There are a lot of varying Protestant denominations in the United States, but there’s not much meaningful difference between them. There’s a much greater difference between Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons. I put all governors belonging to a Protestant denomination as merely Protestant, which simplifies things by a lot.
Sometimes governors, especially Republicans, talk about how much religion has guided them in the lives while never actually revealing their denomination. It takes a bit of searching to confirm that they’re actually Protestant. John Kasich and Rick Scott are good examples of this.
Other times it’s extremely unclear what religious affiliation a governor actually holds. Wikipedia indicates John Kitzhaber of Oregon as being “Other Christian,” but other sources indicate him as Jewish. I put him as Jewish (feel free to inform me if I’m wrong). Information is also very scarce on Peter Shumlin of Vermont, who apparently is Agnostic or Atheist.
In any case, my research led to the following map. The map below indicates the religion of each governor of the United States as of August 2012:
America, unsurprisingly, is a country dominated by Protestants and Catholics. Combined the two account for the governors of 46 out of 50 states. 28 states are governed by Protestants, while 18 states are governed by Catholics.
There’s a fairly clear geographical pattern going on as well. The Northeast and West are dominated by Catholic governors, whereas the American heartland is generally governed by Protestants. There’s more than a passing resemblance to the electoral college. Barack Obama will win most of the states governed by Catholic governors, while Mitt Romney will win most of the states governed by Protestant governors.
Catholics actually punch above their weight here. While they’re only one-fourth of the overall population, Catholics govern 36% of the states. Those states compose 43% of the nation’s population.
Let’s take a look at Democratic governors:
Democrats are lighter on Protestant governors; nine out of the twenty Democratic governors are Protestant (45%), as compared to twenty-eight out of the fifty governors as a whole (56%). Catholic compose eight out of the twenty Democratic governors. But the big states are governed by Catholics. This means that Catholics govern 65% of the population in the twenty states with Democratic governors.
Both Jewish governors are Democratic. So is Peter Shumlin of Vermont, the probable Agnostic or Atheist.
Let’s take a look at the Republicans:
There’s not much difference between the nation as a whole and the states governed by Republican governors. There are a few more Protestants and a few less Catholics. The sole Mormon governor is also a Republican.
There is one difference of note. While ten out of the 29 Republican states are governed by Catholics, these generally have smaller populations. Catholics govern 27% of the population living under Republican governors. This is substantially less than the 43% of the American population as a whole governed by Catholics. Nevertheless, it’s still greater than the 25% of Americans who profess themselves to be Catholic.
There used to be a time when Catholics and Jews found it harder than Protestants to get ahead. It seems that those days of discrimination are mostly over. On the other hand, Agnostics and Atheists will still find the path to becoming governor quite difficult. So will those who profess a faith that is neither Catholic nor Jewish.
–inoljt
18 Comments
How many CIA employees are Mormons?
How many US senators, congressional reps?
How many of ditto in state legies?
Inquiring minds…
“There used to be a time when Catholics and Jews found it harder than Protestants to get ahead. It seems that those days of discrimination are mostly over.”
It does seem to be a long time ago when some folks thought that Catholic JFK would take his orders from the Vatican. How silly that sounds now.
On the other hand, the ideas that “your face doesn’t indicate which religion you are” hasn’t been the case for many US citizens since 9/11. Now that I think about it, it’s probably the same folks who were worried about JFK’s religious allegiance.
Nice work here, inoljt! Other than “you’ve come a long way, baby,” what do you think any of this means?
I. Don’t. Care.
Actually, there’s a great deal of difference between them.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ordains women, gays and lesbians, seeing neither gender nor sexual orientation as a defining characteristic of leadership in the church. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is among those denominations that do not ordain women, and accept gays so long as they are repentant and non-practicing.
The ELCA is among the denominations that accept a woman’s right to make decisions about her own reproductive health, including abortion; Southern Baptists are among those that do not accept this.
There is a great deal of diversity when it comes to the death penalty, pacifism, the consumption of alcohol, universal health care, climate change, education, and dozens of other issues.
While I’m grateful for what you have presented, I’d love to see more of the specifics here, rather than lumping all non-Catholics into the generic “protestant” category.
Good thing there’s no religious test to hold public office in this country.
inoljt. Really you need to break down to specifics like Xtian crusaders.
I’ll echo what Peterr and homeroid said above. The traditional demographic categories of Protestant and Catholic don’t tell us much, especially in a country where the President has to at least pretend to be a Christian.
What do these categories really mean, if anything? Is there more difference between an Episcopalian and a Catholic than there is between a Quaker and a Southern Baptist? Is there another way to plot and understand the religious beliefs of politicians that might be more useful to us? Or maybe all these variations are indeed inconsequential and we should just demographically categorize politicians as those who believe in an invisible man who lives in the sky and those who don’t?
I would think that degree of belief (or non-belief) is more important and revealing than the type of belief (with the possible exception of monotheism because of its impact on one’s secular worldview). Certainly there is a difference that might be expressed politically between a nominal Catholic who only attends Christmas and Easter Mass out of deference to family tradition and an Opus Dei vigilante fundamentalist.
Oh well all you heretics are the same really. I’ve scheduled your auto da fé for next Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. – that alright with you?
mfi
As Peterr, homeroid, and ottogrendel, above have all commented just lumping them together as Catholic or Protestant is essentially meaningless. There are major differences between even moderate Southern Baptists and Episcopalians for example. Furthermore as ottogrendel points out there are major differences within Churches there is a big difference between a liberal Catholic whose conscience and beliefs are informed by the reforms of Vatican II and a conservative Catholic opposed to those reforms or a radical conersative Catholic who is a member of Opus Dei.
mfi
Well, putting all the different Protestant denominations in different groups really screws with the map. After doing that you just get a wild array of colors which don’t really mean anything (besides, if you want to look at a map Wikipedia has it).
Also, as a Protestant myself I think that the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism is much much bigger than the difference between different Protestant denominations. When I talk with Catholics about their religion or enter Catholic churches, it’s extremely different.
On reflection a posting breaking down governors between:
• Fundamentalist.
• Non-fundamentalist.
While very broad brush would be useful information.
mfi
Lol, it is true that ” ‘your face doesn’t indicate which religion you are’ hasn’t been the case for many US citizens since 9/11. But there’s a big variety of people who are Muslim. There are Africa Muslims, Arab Muslims, Balkan Muslims, Central Asian Muslims, Indian Muslims, Indonesian Muslims, South Asian Muslims, Southeast Asian Muslims the whole shebang. The only groups really lacking a Muslim population are East Asians and indigeneous Americans.
My joke to Peterr (who is a protestant clergyman) aside I think you’re missing an important point. What sort of protestant are you? This question is rhetorical and the answer none of my business. I asked it to help you realise that there are huge differences amongst Protestants. An Epsicopalian (what are called Anglicans everywhere else in the world) is a protestant, however they are also part of that grouping of churches called Catholic. Specifically they are “Anglo-Catholics” and there are many Anglicans whose churches beliefs and practices you would find even more extremely “Catholic” than your experiences with Catholics. There are many other Anglicans who closely resemble Presbyterians.
Then there are the Southern Baptists who range (from my point of view) from fundamentalist protestant to extreme fundamentalist protestant to somewhere-over-the-sanity-horizon-and-accelerating-hard-fundamentalist-protestant.
There appears to be a correlation between fundamentalist religious belief and a spectrum of political beliefs running from political conservatism running to radical right wing.
This might be worth investigating.
mfi
There is at very least
Surely there’s at least one in the Satanic religion. It is terribly hot here in Texas.
x 2.
I live in an area with a lot of churches, and there is great variety.
Well said.
And I’ll agree with your general description of the Southern Baptist Political Spectrum.
The correlation you describe is seen most clearly in two areas: sexuality and climate change. Both political discussions rest heavily on scientific research, and the fundamentalist mindset seems particularly resistant to dealing with science.
Here is where fundamentalists and Roman Catholics often part ways. They may share views on sexuality, but not on climate change. You don’t meet nearly as many Young Earth Catholics, for instance, as you do YE fundamentalists. Most Catholics have learned something from the church’s handling of Galileo, though it took some of them centuries to get there. The fundamentalist approach to science is truly scary, with implications for public health, the environment, and dozens of other public issues at stake.
See “Idiot America” by Charlie Pierce for more.
As a Catholic who is the product of a mixed Catholic-Protestant marriage and received religious instruction from both Catholic and Anglican clergy I should to point out to you that we don’t lay nearly the emphasis on scripture that protestants do. ‘Nor do we believe the ludicrous fundamentalist notion that it is completely inerrant, Catholic teaching is that scripture is inerrant in regards to matters of faith, and morals, and salvation but not in matters of science or history.
‘Nor do we believe the ludicrous fundamentalist notion that scripture is intended to interpreted literally. If you know people claiming to be Catholics who say they subscribe to YE theory on the basis of scripture feel free to inform them that their claim is flat against the teachings of the Church and that they need to consult their confessor.
mfi
Momentarily excited to see that we Jews controlled a vast swath of territory in the Pacific Northwest, I asked around, and looked around, and must report that there is no evidence whatsoever that Gov. Kitzhaber is, or has ever claimed to be, Jewish. I certainly never heard such a thing! Oregon Jews would have heard, I think, and we would have whispered it among ourselves if it had any basis in reality. I saw a few such claims online, but they do not add up to much. He presents himself as a thoroughly secular human being without religious affiliation, a former ER physician and health policy wonk, and he is certainly a mensch.