Friday, December 28, 2012

Barriers Fall for Non-Christians in Congress | Essentials

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Barriers Fall for Non-Christians in Congress

Hindu Pilgrim Girl at Brihadishwara Temple - Thanjavur - India
Hindu Pilgrim Girl at Brihadishwara Temple - Thanjavur - India by Adam Jones, Ph.D. - Global Photo Archive
License (according to Flickr): Attribution-ShareAlike License
Excerpt:

Tuesday's election brought some religious firsts for Congress, with a victory for Tulsi Gabbard, who will be the first Hindu congresswoman, and Mazie Hirono, the first Buddhist senator. Both are Democrats from Hawaii. For a country whose founding principles include religious freedom, the American government has a history of being almost homogenous with respect to religion. For most federal representatives, the question isn't whether or not you're Christian but what Christian denomination you follow. Half a century ago it was almost unthinkable for some that a Catholic could win the presidency. But just as leaders have broken racial and gender barriers over the years, so too are non-Christian candidates moving forward. Former Deputy Historian for the House of Representatives Fred Beuttler pointed to the 110th Congress, elected in 2006, as a win for religious plurality. That's the year a Muslim, Keith Ellison, D-Mich. , and two Buddhists, Hank Johnson, D-Ga.

People:

Luke Harlow

Overall Sentiment: 0.033608

Relevance: 0.815307

SentimentQuote
0.115122"From an academic standpoint what has long been the case is that you've had a de facto moral establishment -- which has everything to do with the nature of American democracy -- that for many people feels very Christian, especially for outsiders," Harlow said, ...
0Harlow said there's no real reason to believe that a Buddhist candidate running for president "would get very far," ...
0.0730101"But culture is not just enshrined in law. It's a bigger concept than that," Harlow said. ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 3
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0.1881321
  • Mean: 0.0627107
  • Standard Deviation: 1

Tulsi Gabbard

Overall Sentiment: 0.144499

Relevance: 0.713973

Mazie Hirono

Overall Sentiment: 0.0193624

Relevance: 0.63988

Tulsi

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.59531

Keith Ellison

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.369074

Fred Beuttler

Overall Sentiment: 0.0561617

Relevance: 0.353897

SentimentQuote
0"The House is a very representative institution by its design," Beuttler said. ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 1
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0
  • Mean: 0
  • Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

Hank Johnson

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.343598

Jim McCoy

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.289695

SentimentQuote
0"Tulsi never ran as a Hindu or thought of the campaign in that way," Gabbard campaign spokesman Jim McCoy said ...
0.162067"Tulsi never ran as a Hindu or thought of the campaign in that way," Gabbard campaign spokesman Jim McCoy said in an email. "However, after her victory there was a huge outpouring of joy and elation from Hindus throughout America and even in India. So although Tulsi has never seen it as a 'victory for Hindus,' it's clear that Hindus in America now feel less marginalized than they had prior to her election."
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 2
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0.162067
  • Mean: 0.0810335
  • Standard Deviation: 0

Key:

  • Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

Organization: House

Overall Sentiment: 0.227719

Relevance: 0.659707

Organization: Congress

Overall Sentiment: 0.177961

Relevance: 0.479768

Disambiguation: Dedicator | GovernmentalBody | Legislature | NaturalOrCulturalPreservationAgencyReferences:

Organization: American government

Overall Sentiment: 0.489649

Relevance: 0.408729

Organization: University of Tennessee

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.302134

Continent: America

Overall Sentiment: 0.19149

Relevance: 0.721648

StateOrCounty: Hawaii

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.603891

Disambiguation: Location | PoliticalDistrict | AdministrativeDivision | GovernmentalJurisdiction | MilitaryPost | USStateReferences:

Country: United States

Overall Sentiment: 0.162943

Relevance: 0.447674

Disambiguation: Location | Region | AdministrativeDivision | GovernmentalJurisdiction | FilmEditorReferences:

Country: India

Overall Sentiment: 0.484938

Relevance: 0.318324

Disambiguation: Location | HumanLanguage | Region | GovernmentalJurisdiction | FilmEditorReferences:
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