Updated May 15, 2012  

Religious Traditions

Nearly three-quarters of the organizations included in this study describe themselves as rooted in particular religious traditions or denominations (157 groups, or 73%). Groups that represent a distinctly atheistic or secular perspective comprise 1% of the groups in the study (two groups). A quarter of the groups combine the interests and viewpoints of multiple faiths or advocate on religion-related issues without representing any particular religious tradition or denomination (57 groups, or 26%). These interreligious groups (which include both ecumenical Christian and interfaith groups) are more numerous than the groups representing any single faith.

The religious traditions with the largest number of advocacy groups in Washington are Catholicism (41 groups, or 19%) and evangelical Protestantism (39 groups, or 18%).¹² These proportions, however, are somewhat lower than the percentages of Catholics and evangelical Protestants in the U.S. adult population. According to the Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, about half of all American adults are affiliated either with Catholicism (23.9%) or with evangelical Protestant churches (26.3%).¹³ About 7% of the religious advocacy groups in Washington (16 groups) identify themselves with such mainline denominations as the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Episcopal Church; mainline Protestants comprise 18.1% of the U.S. adult population.

Some smaller religious groups account for a much larger share of the advocacy organizations in the study than they do of the general population. For example, there are 17 Muslim advocacy organizations in Washington (8% of the total) and 25 Jewish advocacy organizations (12%), while Muslims make up 0.8% of U.S. adults and Jews make up 1.7%. This may reflect the importance these groups place on advocacy to protect their rights as religious minorities.

Other groups account for a smaller share of the advocacy organizations in the study than they do of the general population. Just 1% of the advocacy organizations in this study reflect an expressly secular, atheist or humanist point of view, though nonreligious Americans (atheists, agnostics and unaffiliated people who say religion is not too important or not at all important in their lives) make up 10.3% of all U.S. adults.

At first glance, historically black Protestant churches appear almost absent from religion-related advocacy in the nation’s capital. There is only one group in this study – the Progressive National Baptist Convention – affiliated with a historically black Protestant denomination, though members of these denominations make up 6.9% of the U.S. public. One possible explanation is that, rather than attempting to influence public policy through permanent organizations in Washington, historically black churches tend to participate in temporary alliances, permanent coalitions, interfaith efforts and civil rights organizations. They may also use informal methods that are not captured in this study, such as discussing policy matters in church groups, mobilizing lay members on political issues and sending delegations to Washington.¹⁴ Although it may appear that, in strictly numerical terms, certain religious groups are under- or overrepresented in the Washington advocacy community, the absolute number of groups is not a reliable indicator of how well a particular religious tradition is represented in Washington. For instance, a single, highly active, well-staffed and well-funded organization may offer better representation than a number of smaller, less active or less well-funded groups. In addition, comparisons between the size of a religious tradition and the number of advocacy groups that come out of that tradition do not take into account interfaith groups and coalitions, which make up a quarter of the religious advocacy groups in Washington. Nor do the comparisons take into account the role of advocacy organizations based outside of Washington.

For the full list of 216 religion-related advocacy organizations in the study and their religious affiliations, see the online directory.

Footnotes: 

12 Many of these advocacy groups, however, are not officially sanctioned by church bodies and are not, in that sense, formal representatives of particular faiths. Indeed, groups from a single tradition sometimes come down on opposite sides of particular issues. There are groups that identify themselves as Catholic, for example, on both sides of the abortion debate, even though the Roman Catholic Church is unequivocally opposed to abortion. (return to text) 

13 Most figures for the size of religious groups in the U.S. adult population are from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted in 2007 and published in 2008, http://religions.pewforum.org. Figures for Muslims are based on data from Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism, Pew Research Center, 2011, http://pewforum.org/Muslim/Muslim-Americans--No-Signs-of-Growth-in-Alienation-or-Support-for-Extremism.aspx, in combination with U.S. Census Bureau data. (return to text) 

14 For more information on black churches’ civic engagement, see R. Drew Smith, “The Public Influences of African-American Churches: Contexts and Capacities,” The Leadership Center at Morehouse College, 2002, http://www.morehouse.edu/centers/leadershipcenter/pubinfl/PewReport2002.pdf. (return to text)