New Congress Brings Along Religious Firsts

But perhaps the most underrepresented group in Congress is the 14 percent of all American adults who, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by scholars at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, claim no religion at all. Only six members of Congress, all Democrats, identify themselves as religiously unaffiliated: Reps. John F. Tierney and John W. Olver of Massachusetts, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Mark Udall of Colorado.

Jews have continued to gain representation in Congress -- 8 percent in the new Congress -- even as their share of the national population has waned (1.3 percent in 2001). But Jewish numbers in Congress also tend to fluctuate with Democratic fortunes. In a year in which Democrats did well in unexpected places, new Jewish members of Congress were elected this fall from Tennessee, Kentucky, Arizona and New Hampshire, as well as the more familiar terrain of Florida and Wisconsin.

For Buddhists and Muslims, the 110th Congress represents their first congressional representation.

The two Buddhist Democrats -- Reps. Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii and Hank Johnson of Georgia -- both have avoided talking about their religion, saying it is a private matter.

A spokesman for Hirono, who came to Hawaii with her mother from Japan when she was 8, would only confirm that Hirono was raised in the tradition of her mother's Jodo Shu Buddhism.

A spokesman for Johnson would only confirm that he became a Buddhist about 30 years ago and is affiliated with Soka Gakkai International, an American Buddhist association.

Like Johnson, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, is a convert and African American. Raised Catholic, he converted to Islam at 19 while attending Wayne State University .

"The election of this first Muslim is quite important symbolically," said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. "It may very well be the harbinger of greater acceptance of Muslims in the future."