Popes, pluralism and Pride: By the numbers

By Jan Shannon | Stonewall News Northwest

When the American population equals 340 million, and only 19% of Americans identify as Catholic while 45% identify as Protestant, why is so much airtime given for the papacy?

It’s not that I’m against seeing all those colorful images of Rome, the cardinals, the Vatican Basilica etc. It just made me wonder why don’t the media outlets cover all religious events with this much fervor?

Here’s a little about why it interests me. I’m a church geek. That is to say, I’ve been a Christian since I was 14, have an master of divinity degree, have been a pastor and I adore all things church-related. The Christian church, that is. Mostly I’m Methodist, not that it’s critically important, but I’m nerdy about all things Christianity in general, including Catholicism. I align myself with the ~45% of Americans who identify as Protestant. So, as the Protestant churches are not under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, I’m wondering how many of my fellow Americans were as interested in the conclave as I was. 

I assume that American Catholics were interested because they follow the teachings of the pope. So it stands to reason that they would watch the smoke to see when the conclave elected the “new guy” (always a guy — never a gal — that’s another article). But that’s only 19% of the population. Now, I’m no math major, but even I can see that 40% and 19% don’t add up to 100% of the U.S.

In America, we also have Jews, Muslims, Buddhists (of all flavors), Hindus and folks who follow other world religions, for a whopping total of more than 7% of Americans. That gets our numbers up to 66% of our citizenry. Where are the rest of us? The U.S. has a large proportion of folks who identify with no religion at all. Those numbers look like this: 29% are “religiously unidentified.” Our non-religious compatriots constitute a larger percentage of the population than U.S. Catholics.

So, again I ask: If Catholics are in the minority in the U.S., why such great media coverage for their religious rites? What about the rites of our fellow nationals who practice equally compelling religions? While Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot are sporadically mentioned on national news, I have never seen any analysis of the practice, meaning or symbolism involved in any of those holy festivals.

I sure learned a lot about conclaves, cardinals, smoke and church history last week … but maybe the difference between the attention paid to our Jewish friends and our Catholic friends lies solely in the vastness of the spectacle of the conclave and the size of the crowds in Rome. But wait … is that why? Because there’s one massive spectacle that takes place annually and it’s got more history, epic scenery and way more participants than any papal conclave ever: the Hajj.

There isn’t room in this article to adequately describe the majesty that is the Hajj, so here’s the abridged version: Hajj — 1.8 million Muslims converge on Mecca for a week and perform a series of rituals including participants wearing a single piece of unstitched white clothing, walking counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, kissing the black stone mounted on the corner wall of Kaaba, walking briskly back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah seven times, drinking from the Zamzam Well, standing vigil at Mount Arafat, spending a night outside at Muzdalifa and performing a symbolic Stoning of the Devil. 

I mean, come on! Stoning the Devil?! The conclave had nothing that cool! So, with nearly 5 million Muslims living here in the U.S., why don’t American news outlets cover the Hajj from start to finish with 24/7 reporting live at the event sites like they did the conclave? Hm?

To be clear, the U.S. Constitution calls for us to be a pluralistic society. The First Amendment to the Constitution states there should be “no establishment” of religion and the “free exercise” of religion. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has the authority to grant licenses to broadcasters, set rules for the content they broadcast and enforce those rules, so why doesn’t the FCC require equal reporting for all religions? If pluralism is what the Founders intended, then isn’t that what we should all be striving for?

Wouldn’t it be marvelous if, as a society, we gave as much attention to the significant happenings of non-Christian religions? Wouldn’t it be fabulous if every American could be tuned into the celebrations of all our citizens? Faithful Americans should desire to learn about and come to understand all our people.

I forgot to mention one thing: I’m also gay. A gay Christian. Not the oxymoron you might think. There are lots of us. Upwards of 20% of the LGBTQ population are at least somewhat religious, with more than 35% of those in my age range identifying as highly religious. And we queer folks know how to throw a party worthy of 24/7 media attention. The conclave had red and white regalia, but that’s nothing compared to the rainbow of colors on display at every Pride celebration. And we have the numbers too! Twenty percent of Americans have attended a Pride event, which equals 68 million Americans. Here I go “mathing” again: 68 million Pride attendees are a lot more than 52 million American Catholics, right? We should get more attention and more love, in order to promote more understanding and compassion from our fellow Americans.

If America is ever going to live into its pluralistic fundamentals, we need to see all our citizens celebrated equally — those of all faiths, all creeds and all identities. #GodLovesAll #AllMeansAll

This column first ran on Stonewall News Northwest.