As you can see, Massachusetts, which is considered a very "liberal" state, has a large Irish Catholic population. I don't know why people think that people who are considered "the left" or "democrats" would not be religious.
Demographics of Massachusetts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religion[edit]
As the United States does not collect religious data, it is unknown how many people of each religion live in Massachusetts. Some polls only measure religious adherence of church rather than the whole population. Massachusetts was founded and settled by
Puritans in the 17th century. The descendants of the Puritans belong to many different churches; in the direct line of inheritance are the
Congregational/
United Church of Christ and
Unitarian Universalist Association. Both of these denominations are noted for their strong support of social justice, civil rights, and moral issues, including strong and early advocacy of abolition of slavery, women's rights, and (after 2000) legal recognition of same-sex marriage.[
citation needed] The headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association is located on Beacon Hill in
Boston. Today Protestants make up less than 1/4 of the state's population.
Roman Catholics now predominate because of massive immigration from
Ireland,
Quebec,
Italy,
Poland,
Portugal,
Puerto Rico, and the
Dominican Republic. A large
Jewishpopulation came to the Boston area 1880–1920. Many Jews from
Eastern Europe have also been immigrating to the Boston area since the fall of
Communism. Islam has also been growing in recent years and now numbers between 30,000 and 80,000.
Mary Baker Eddy made the Boston Mother Church of
Christian Science the world headquarters.
Buddhists,
Pagans,
Hindus,
Seventh-day Adventists, and
Mormons also can be found. Kripalu and the Insight Meditation Center (Barre) are examples of non-western religious centers in Massachusetts.
Bahá'Ãs are also present.
According to the
Association of Religion Data Archives the largest single denominations are the
Roman Catholic Church with 3,092,296; the
United Church of Christ with 121,826; and the
Episcopal Church with 98,963 adherents.
Jewish congregations had about 275,000 members.
[11]
Old Ship Church,
Hingham, Massachusetts, built 1681, oldest church in America in continuous ecclesiastical use
As of 2001, the religious affiliations of the people of Massachusetts were:
[12]
Religion or Denomination % of Population
Catholic 44
No Religion 23
Baptist 4
Christian (no denomination specified) 3
Methodist 2
Lutheran 1
Presbyterian 1
Protestant 4
Pentecostal 2
Episcopal 3
Jewish 1.8
Muslim 1.2
Church of Christ 1
Congregational/
United Church of Christ 3
Buddhist 1
Other 5