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A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 5 January 2023
Survey: Religiously, Congress doesn’t reflect America

Continued from Front voters nationwide. And in Donald Trump walked to a
some bellwether races, the nearby church and held up
Pew listed 20 other mem- unaffiliated went as high as a Bible. “When Trump held
bers of Congress as having 4 to 1 for Democrats. up that Bible in front of that
unknown religious affilia- “The fact that the (Demo- church in D.C., he did more
tions, either because they cratic) leadership doesn’t damage to the Christian
declined to answer CQ Roll reflect an open, secular brand than Hitchens and
Call’s query or because identity is paradoxical, but Dawkins and Harris com-
the answers are otherwise I think it’s the nature of re- bined,” Zuckerman said,
muddled (such as in the alpolitik,” said Phil Zucker- referring to popular atheist
case of New York Republi- man, professor of sociology authors.
can George Santos, along and secular studies at Pitzer In 2018, Huffman helped
with much else in his back- College in Claremont, Cali- found the Congressional
ground). Historically, lack- fornia. He said Democrats Freethought Caucus. It had
ing a religious identity was know that non-religious a roster of about 15 mem-
seen as a political liability. "In God We Trust" is engraved in stone above a U.S. flag in the voters align with them on bers in the previous Con-
Only 60% of Americans told House of Representatives chamber at the Capitol in Washington the issues, but party leaders gress. “It’s people of differ-
a Gallup survey in 2019 that on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. also don’t want to alienate ent religious perspectives,
they’d be willing to vote Associated Press other, more religious parts but what brings us together
for an atheist — fewer than of the population, while the 25% Catholics and 5% other of the party’s base, particu- is a common belief that
would vote for gays or les- non-affiliated rose from 16% Christians (such as Mormon larly Black Protestants. there should be a bright
bians or various religious or to 29%, according to Pew. and Orthodox). Party leaders “speak to the line of separation between
ethnic groups. The trend line is even more Democrats have more re- politics of secular people church and state and that
But Huffman said he expe- dramatic when looking ligious diversity, at about but don’t want to take on we should make public
rienced no political blow- back to 1990, when nearly 76% Christian (including the identity,” he said. policy based on facts and
back. “If anything, there’s nine in 10 Americans identi- 44% Protestant, 31% Cath- Zuckerman added that reason and science, and
a political upside,” he said. fied as Christian, while less olic and 1.5% Orthodox) conservative Christians not religion,” he said.
“People appreciate the than one in 10 identified as and 12% Jewish. They have face the “branding prob- He predicted that in time,
fact that I’m just being non-religious, according to about 1% each of Buddhist, lem” similar to what athe- more members of Congress
honest.” He said many col- researchers at Trinity Col- Hindu, Muslim and Unitarian ists once faced. Many vot- would identify with secular
leagues in Congress find re- lege in Connecticut. Universalist representation. ers, he said, have reacted values.
ligion to be politically use- In some ways, the two po- But Democrats’ paucity of against Christian national- “It’s going to be a trailing
ful, “particularly across the litical parties conform to openly non-affiliated mem- ism, and young voters in reflection of this change
aisle, how so many of them perception. bers contrasts starkly with particular are alienated that has been happening
exploit and weaponize reli- The Republican congres- a constituency to which it by conservative Christian for a couple of decades
gion but seem to be totally sional delegation is a stag- owes much. stances against LGBTQ now,” he said. “It takes a
divorced from any authen- gering 99% Christian, with Religiously unaffiliated vot- people, while many voters while for politicians to figure
tic connection to the reli- the rest Jewish or unknown. ers opted overwhelmingly of all ages have reacted out that it’s OK to do things
gion they’re weaponizing.” Republicans — who have for Democrats candidates against Christian national- like this.”
The ranks of Christians in long embraced Christian in the 2022 midterms. They ism. The Pew report analyzed
Congress has dipped only expressions in their political voted for Democrats over He cited a prominent inci- one short of Congress’ ca-
slightly over the decades, functions and where an Republicans by more than dent in 2020 when authori- pacity of 535 because one
though it’s a different story aggressive form of Chris- a 2 to 1 margin in House ties forcibly cleared Black member, Rep. A. Donald
with the general popula- tian nationalism has be- races, according to AP Lives Matter protesters in McEachin, D-Va., died in
tion. Since 2007, Christians come more mainstream VoteCast, an expansive Lafayette Park in Washing- November after being re-
have gone from 78% to 63% — include 69% Protestants, survey of more than 94,000 ton, after which President elected.q

Twitter says it will relax ban on political advertising

The company tweeted used to influence votes to with those of "TV and other
late Tuesday that "we're affect the lives of millions." media outlets," without pro-
relaxing our ads policy for The latest move appears to viding further details.
cause-based ads in the US." represent a break from that Facebook in March 2021
"We also plan to expand policy, which had banned lifted its ban on political
the political advertising ads by candidates, po- and social issue ads that
we permit in the coming litical parties, or elected or was put in place after the
weeks," the company said appointed government of- 2020 U.S. presidential elec-
from its Twitter Safety ac- ficials. tion.
count. Political advertising made Musk bills himself as a free-
Twitter banned all politi- up a sliver of Twitter's over- speech warrior and bought
cal advertising in 2019, re- all revenue, accounting for Twitter because he appar-
acting to growing con- less than $3 million of total ently believed it wasn't liv-
cern about misinformation spending for the 2018 U.S. ing up to its potential as a
spreading on social media. midterm election. free speech platform.
This July 9, 2019, file photo shows a sign outside of the Twitter At the time, then-CEO Jack In reversing the ban, Twitter But the billionaire Tesla CEO
office building in San Francisco.
Associated Press Dorsey said that while inter- said that "cause-based ad- has been forced to make
net ads are powerful and vertising can facilitate pub- huge cost cuts and scram-
By The Associated Press change by Elon Musk as he effective for commercial lic conversation around im- ble to find more sources of
Twitter says it will ease up tries to pump up revenue advertisers, "that power portant topics" and that the revenue to justify the $44
on its 3-year-old ban on po- after purchasing the social brings significant risks to change will align the plat- billion purchase.q
litical advertising, the latest media platform last year. politics, where it can be form's advertising policy