A wave of new Tennessee laws went into effect Monday, many of them shaped explicitly or implicitly by the spiritual commitments of the state’s lawmakers. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reviewed the online profiles of every member of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly to see how they described their religion.
Nine in 10 members publicly identified as a some kind of Christian — a higher rate than the general population of Tennessee adults, which is 81% Christian, according to the Pew Research Center — and a plurality identified specifically as Baptist.
One in 10 lawmakers did not list a religion, and they tended to be Democrats. Roughly 27% of Democratic lawmakers did not list a religion, compared to 7% of Republicans. Another way of putting that data: Democrats constituted less than a quarter of the general assembly, but made up more than half of the lawmakers who listed no religion on their official bio.
One lawmaker out of the 132 combined members of the state House and Senate identified at least in part with a non-Christian religion. He is John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, who in the religion category said: “Christian and Jewish family.”
Two lawmakers said they were Catholic: Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, and Rep. Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville.