Is there too much religion at the Colorado Capitol?

That was the focus of an interesting and provocative piece in Colorado Politics examining the religious beliefs (or lack thereof) among the 100 Colorado legislators, finding 24% identify as non-religious, compared to the estimated 34% of all Coloradans. The contention is that, therefore, religious faith could be considered “overrepresented” at the Capitol.

This important piece raises two vital questions.

First, does a 10-percentage point gap between legislative non-religious and the general population create a disproportionate dominance of religious influence? And, much more significantly, is faith in public life a net good or something to be diminished, pushed to the margins, or expunged altogether?

Though the comparison of the composition of the Legislature to the general population is interesting, it is ultimately of little significance – unless we believe proportionate representation in the General Assembly will create better government.

If that’s the desire, the Colorado Legislature has some problems.

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For example, if you are an unaffiliated voter – along with 45% of all registered voters in the state – you are completely unrepresented in the Legislature.  Exactly zero legislators are unaffiliated, with all 100 belonging to either the Democratic or Republican parties.

Or look at LGBTQ legislators. According to one media report, 13 legislators (or 13% of the General Assembly) identify as LGBTQ.  This is nearly double the 2022 Gallup estimate of 7% of Americans who are LGBTQ.

A headline would get howls if it suggested there is “too much gay” under the Dome.

The undercurrent in the contention of disproportionate religious dominance is that a legislator’s faith can be donned or discarded depending on the circumstances, and that it perhaps is best left in one’s car in the Capitol parking lot.

But would anyone suggest that, for example, LGBTQ members not bring that defining aspect of their lives to the Capitol even though they are vastly “overrepresented?”  No, because they would say it’s bedrock to their identity and inseparable from their ability to weigh key issues.

So it is with those serious about their faith. Far from something limited to services at a church, synagogue, or mosque, one’s faith is at the very core of one’s worldview.  And their worldview – their concept of how society should be properly ordered – informs how they view their votes.

Part of the atheists’ brief against faith in public life is that the religious are seeking to “impose their morality” on others.

In fact, the craft of legislating is all about morality.

The top issues facing Colorado, and the responses to them, are at their base moral questions about how we treat, and care for, our fellow citizens, our neighborhoods, and our environment.

Take the issue of car theft, where Colorado is a national leader. Tougher laws on car theft are needed because it is wrong to steal cars, it creates injury to victims, and we have allowed it to become too easy to steal cars without strong and just punishment that deters this crime.

That is legislating behavior to enforce a consensus on morality.

And when we fail to enforce this consensus, which at its best transcends ideology, and instead allow a relativistic lawlessness in the name of compassion, we see the inevitable decay in our cities, including in Colorado’s capital city.

An equally concerning canard is that faith among elected officials is the province of conservatives. In fact, there is a long legacy of left-leaning public figures being deeply committed to their faith here in Colorado and throughout American history.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King – a man of the left – delivered some of his most important and lasting oratory in his drive for political and societal transformation in the form of sermons, often from the pulpit of his home church in Atlanta.

Without a moral basis to legislating, often found in the fundamentals of faith, governing becomes a self-centered, isolated will to power by political majorities, running roughshod over the needs and concerns of those without power, or influence, or enough votes in the Legislature.

And, ironically, far from being dominant and domineering, we increasingly see the values of Coloradans of deep religious faith being steamrolled or marginalized by those in power at the Capitol. So, is there too much religious influence at the Capitol?

I’d argue there is not enough.

Sean Duffy, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.