A meaningless and fundamentally broken table

[james_davis_nicoll]

Everyone knows that the fraction of American Presidents who were Catholics is nothing as high as the number of Americans who are Catholics. Ever wonder which religions are over-represented amongst American Presidents?


Assuming this table can be taken at face value:

Religious affiliation of US Presidents in order of the degree to which their religion is over-represented amongst US Presidents if they had all been elected today and not in some past era when demographics were different:

Denomination        Number of      Percent of       Percent of              Ratio:
                    Presidents     Presidents       Current U.S. Pop.       % of Pres.
                                                                            to % of Pop. 

Dutch Reformed          2             4.8%             0.1%                   48.0 
Unitarian               4             9.5%             0.2%                   47.5 
Disciples of Christ     3             7.1%             0.4%                   17.8 
Episcopalian           11            26.2%             1.7%                   15.4 
Presbyterian           11            26.2%             2.8%                    9.4
Congregationalist       2             4.8%             0.6%                    8.0 
Quaker                  2             4.8%             0.7%                    6.9 
Jehovah's Witness       1             2.4%             0.6%                    4.0 
Methodist               5            11.9%             8.0%                    1.5 
Baptist                 4             9.5%             8.0%                    1.2 
Catholic                1             2.4%            24.5%                    0.1 

TOTAL                  42            100%            57.0%   

[Fixed to correct Eisenhower's affiliation, to correct some math errors and to take into account reader comments]

Oddly, all but one of these denominations is batting out of its league. I suppose that is a reflection of religious diveristy and the uneven distribution between sects of interest in and possibility of achieving higher office.

I expected more Quakers.

I have not verified the numbers I am using and since I spotted one error in the original there may well be others.

Comments

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

Well, if you group "state" churches together, that includes the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglicans, and the Lutheran Church, which supplanted the Roman Catholic Church in many European countries after a lot of bloodshed. What a lot of people call "mainstream Protestant" denominations are the Dissenting Faiths, which usually means dissent with the Church of England, although I don't see why it can't include the Dutch Reformed Church and the Anabaptists (Mennonites and Amish), since they were reactions against the Lutheran state churches in various places.

Early immigrants from Lutheran countries often ended up becoming Episcopalian after arriving here; we have a parish here in Philadelphia called Gloria Dei or Old Swede's Church that is Episcopalian and dates to the early 18th century; they have a big St. Lucia celebration every year, which in most other places in the US is solely a Lutheran affair. It seems to have taken a while for Lutherans to come here and resolve to STAY Lutheran. That's probably part of the reason for the lack of Lutherans on the list. And then there was a period of time when many devout Lutherans in the US (not likely or willing to become Episcopalian or anything else) were immigrants or recent immigrants; by the time there were viable political candidates who were Lutheran who might consider running for national office we had WWI, during which and after which a lot of people downplayed their German ancestry; being "out" about being a practicing Lutheran would be the opposite of this sort of discretion. (My grandmother refused to teach German to my father and uncle in the 20s because of some anti-German sentiment in New Haven after the war.) Then we got WWII and another spate of de-emphasizing German ancestry.

I'm not remembering--if Mondale had been elected, would he have been the first Lutheran? I don't know if he's Lutheran or not, I just know he's from Minnesota, but the two often go together.