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

[morchades.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised there's been so many Unitarians.

[nwhyte]

What's not to love about Unitarians?

(Anyway the last one elected was a hundred years ago.)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

They're so.... so.... tolerant.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not very American, is it?

[morchades.livejournal.com]

And so very barely tolerated by the "Traditional" Christians.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Didn't Texas decide they were not a real religion?

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

It's a complicated history. The Unitarians and Universalists were both founded as Christ-centered religions, but when they merged in 1961 they altered their mission to being one of a disciplined search for personal truths throughout the entirely of historical spirituality. They don't proclaim any specific answers or direction in any theological issues and demand that their members hold no creeds. (The Disciples of Christ are similar, except that they hold that the Bible is not wholly off-base regarding the nature of God and that Jesus is to be the central character in one's search for illumination.)

And while I don't agree with Texas' decision-making in this regard, I can vaguely follow how one might define "religion" in such a way that the UUs are no more religious than the Toastmasters or the Rotarians. (And, if you were actually asking, the Texas comptroller did reverse her decision to rescind their tax-exempt status.)

[j-larson.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many of them are real Unitarians, and how many are basically secular folks who don't want to say, "None of the above."

[gjules.livejournal.com]

At least two -- the Adamses -- were real Unitarians. I sing at the church they were members of (which also happens to be the church they're buried in).

[(Anonymous)]

Unitarianism was heavily represented in the US upper class in the 1800s. I was surprised to learn in "The Education of Henry Adams" (1) that Harvard was a Unitarian institution.

(1) First 3/4 of which I highly recommend.

William Hyde

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

It's still one of the UU seminaries, I note irrelevantly. (Well, semi-officially.)

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing they were all pretty early ones, probably soon after the split with the Congregationalists but before the church merged with the Universalists.

I wonder if, in the future, Obama will be lumped in with the Congregationalists or the Dutch Reformed? Both former denominations are now part of the UCC, Obama's church.