THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412180069
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Despite gains by Jews and Catholics, mainline Protestants still make up far more of America's social, economic and political elites than their share of the population at large, a study shows.
Episcopalians, Presbyterians and United Church of Christ members, together less than 5 percent of Americans, account for more than a third of the people in ``Who's Who in America'' who listed religious affiliations, the Purdue University study found.
The researchers compared religious affiliation and secular eminence from 1930 to 1992, finding that Jewish people and Roman Catholics have made gains.
``But contrary to popular opinion, the change is relatively small,'' said sociologist James Davidson, who led the study.
``If you stepped into a board meeting of a business giant, our research shows that you still would find several Episcopalians, a few Presbyterians, probably a Jew and a Catholic, and no Baptists.''
Researchers Ralph Pyle, David Reyes and Davidson compared information from a 1930 study of individuals reporting their religious affiliation in ``Who's Who'' with their own study of religious affiliation reported in the 1992-1993 edition. While the 1930 study covered all the people listed, the 1992 study randomly selected one of every 20. From that group of 4,018, 1,380 reported a religious affiliation.
There are significant limits to the research, including the fact that only 34 percent of the people listed in 1992 reported a religious affiliation, as compared to 56 percent in 1930.
But Pyle, noting that nearly 100 scholarly analyses have used ``Who's Who'' to create profiles of America's leaders in politics, the arts, business, education and other influential professions, said it is ``probably the best source we have that looks at the religious affiliation of elites.''
Jews, who in 1930 accounted for about 1 percent of the nation's leading figures, now make up more than 12 percent of those who gave a religious affiliation, despite being only 2 percent of the population.
Lutherans jumped from 2 percent of the elite to 6 percent. And Catholics, who in 1930 were 4 percent of ``Who's Who'' biographees with a religious identification, now occupy 23 percent, only slightly less than their percentage of the U.S. population.
But members of churches that researchers defined as leading the old Protestant establishment - Episcopalians, Presbyterians and United Church of Christ - retained disproportionate representation among the nation's elite despite those churches' declining memberships in recent decades.
For example, researchers said, Episcopalians made up 18 percent of the listees, down four percentage points from 1930 but seven times the number that would be expected, based on their proportion of the overall population.
Presbyterians dropped from 20 percent to 14 percent of listees, a figure still nearly three times their percentage of the U.S. population. The United Church of Christ dropped dramatically from 11 percent to 3 percent of listees, but their numbers are still more than 2 1/2 times what would be expected. by CNB