As a congressman of faith, Mike Johnson is hardly alone. Like the new Republican speaker, 88 percent of House members called themselves Christian at the start of the 118th Congress. Like him, a majority are Protestants. Breaking it down further, Johnson is one of 57 Baptists, making it the second largest denomination in the House, behind the 122 Catholics.
Despite Christianity’s numerical advantage in Congress, Johnson has argued repeatedly that his religion is under nationwide attack by, as he put it in one 2006 op-ed, a “sprawling alliance of anti-God enthusiasts [that] has proven frighteningly efficient at remaking America in their own brutal, dehumanizing image.”
As a congressman of no faith, Jared Huffman is very much alone. He calls himself a humanist and is the only out apostate in Congress. “I’ve got to speak for the majority of Americans who actually aren’t churchgoing devout believers,” the California Democrat said. “That’s a heavy burden.”
