Talk:Religious affiliation in the United States Senate

Jewish population figure
Where is the 1.4% taken from, for the %age of the US that's Jewish? American Jews gives figures of 1.7%-2.2%. Some of the Jewish members of Congress are only "ethnically Jewish", so it seems to me we should be going with the loosest definition of "Jew" when considering the correct %age of the population that is "Jewish". Tomertalk 00:33, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

1.4% of the population claims that it is jewish by religion. Since muslims and christians are mentioned as well, it's best to stick to the religion, en not use the (contested) ethnical background. On the other hand, I think with the politicians mentioned it is not clear if they are jewish, Jewish, or jewish Jews. So overall, the data given cannot lead to a correct analysis. But it is an indication. Sonyes (talk) 15:05, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

The citation seems to imply that the individuals listed as Jewish have marked themselves as such, and thus it makes sense for wikipedia to use their self-definition rather than attempting to parse the Senators' religious observance. Aharriso (talk) 05:53, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Citations Needed
Is there a citation for the claim that 1 Senator is a member of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel? Also, it would probably be best at this point if we found an updated source to accommodate the changes in the Senate since 2008(maybe even wait until the upcoming election to do so), or updated the title to "Religious affiliation in the 109th United States Senate" Aharriso (talk) 05:57, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Voting Record
The religion of a Senator does indeed affect their stance/voting record, etc. -- Billybob2002 (talk) 17:02, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

Representation List
Would this list not work better as a table? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.67.110.230 (talk) 18:24, 15 February 2014 (UTC)


 * I agree. Also, if anyone gets around to that, it should be in alphabetical order, or something. Richard Manion 14:28, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Denomination links
In all but one of the denominations, every member's affiliation link is clickable. For the Mormons, only the first denomination link is clickable. All other Mormon members simply have a static unclickable "Mormon" noted. To avoid the appearance of bias, the Mormon links probably ought to be treated the same as every other denomination. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:3E0B:BA00:B01B:B25A:CC18:C342 (talk) 18:43, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

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Dealing with unclear cases
Dianne Feinstein's page currently doesn't say anything about her religious affiliation. The issue under discussion at WP:BLPN. Given that, what should we do here in the meantime? Listing her under "Unaffiliated" seems wrong, absent better evidence—the two senators listed there (Tammy Baldwin and Michael Bennet) appear to have explicitly said (through spokespeople) that they don't affiliate with any particular religion, but with Feinstein, there's just a shortage of clear evidence one way or the other. If we remove her from the article entirely (at least for the time being), should the article get a notice about being incomplete? --Chris Hallquist (talk) 02:49, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

She is self identifies as Jewish spiritually and culturally. See he essay in "I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl"  — Preceding

unsigned comment added by 68.195.145.80 (talk) 23:46, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
 * This book was not cited in the article, and I haven't read it. I suggest adding it as a citation, if you have access to it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris Hallquist (talk • contribs) 00:58, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

Elizabeth Warren
Responding to these three edits, I would argue that Elizabeth Warren can still be considered a Methodist, although maybe a lapsed one. Warren is a Methodist as much as Bernie Sanders is Jewish. At least, let's list her among generic Protestants. --Checco (talk) 12:00, 2 January 2019 (UTC)


 * If I won't hear anything about my argument, I will edit the article accordingly. THis is how she was lately classified by CNN (see here), just to name one news source. The fact that she attends various churches (as politicians often do) does not mean she is no longer Methodist. --Checco (talk) 10:45, 10 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Having read no contrary opinions, I am going to move Warren back as a Methodist. --Checco (talk) 08:23, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

Raised as / Former
I think we should make a distinction between "raised as" and "former". For instance, Rick Scott was not just raised as a Presbyterian, but he was a Presbyterian for most of his adult life, until 2006 (he was 54 at the time). Notes have been introduced and they are a good thing, as long as they are accurate. As long as the above issue is not settled, also Elizabeth Warren should be described at least as "former Methodist", not just "raised as Methodist", as she was a Methodist Sunday school teacher well into her forties, when she used to live in Houston, Texas. --Checco (talk) 10:45, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

Why Does Article Specify Denominations for "Christians", but not for Jews?
If article is going to specify denominations for professed Christians, should it not do the same for Jews? Orthodox? Conservative? Reformed? Secular? Messianic? One may question whether Jew means religion at all. Jew actually refers to a historical group of people, who could be termed a race. The most defining characteristic (for modern Jews) that they have a Jewish mother. Religiously, Judaism can be separated into groups by their allegiance (or lack of it) to the Babylonian Talmud. At any rate, the article would be improved by subcategories: Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, Karaite, Secular, & Messianic at least. (PeacePeace (talk) 17:11, 6 June 2019 (UTC))
 * Orthodox/Conservative/Reform aren't really "denominations" per se; you don't have to convert to go from one to the other. Also, as there are far more Christians than Jews in the U.S. and in the Senate, further division might not be helpful, even if it were available. That said, the list is still a problem, because it doesn't appear to actually indicate which religion the individuals tagged as "Jews" follow. Jayjg (talk) 17:35, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I thank User:Jayjg for his/her explanation. I agree. --Checco (talk) 05:12, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Comparison with general population ideal figures
When I edited both this page and the house counterpart to include this table, I added the ideal figures section only for the house page. I did this because the purpose of the House is to represent the population. This is not necessarily the purpose of the Senate, which is to make sure every state has an equal voice. If someone wants to add this part anyway, they can, but take that into consideration. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KingWither (talk • contribs) 17:27, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I agree with User:KingWither, 100%! --Checco (talk) 14:11, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

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Differentiation between Presbyterians and Lutheran denominations
Marsha Blackburn belongs to Presbyterian Church of America. (PCA) Shelley Moore Capito belongs to the Presbyterian Church USA ( PCUSA) While they are both Presbyterian in form of government they are separate denominations with very different theological viewpoints. The same is true for different types of Lutheran. ELCA is very different than WELS or Missouri Synod. Links should point to specific denomination rather than generic form of government. 75.62.44.51 (talk) 16:20, 17 July 2022 (UTC)
 * In my view, the branch of Protestantism is what really matters. This said, a note can be added to specify the exact denomination. --Checco (talk) 14:14, 18 July 2022 (UTC)