A group formed last year that purports to represent U.S. Christian lawmakers recently launched a Twitter poll to answer this question: “Would America be better off with more Christians in elected office?

The results, to put it mildly, were disappointing (to the pollers).

The National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) clearly hoped its survey would reveal wide American support for more Christian legislators over all the other kinds.

Well, no, it didn’t.

In fact, the poll, which reportedly garnered a hefty 16,000 responses, revealed instead that 95.8 percent of respondents voted “no.”

Not that the NACL wants to acknowledge that awkward fact. No. In a response to its own poll, the group on its Facebook page accused “atheists and Satanists” of “religious persecution” for skewing the results by purposely voting in the negative.

When the unintended results became public and religion opponents submitted snarky comments on social media, NACL posted this note on Facebook:

“View the comments on this thread to see what religious persecution and anti-Christian bigotry looks like in America. Satanists and Atheists piled on this poll and have begun leaving vile messages as well.

Here’s a sampling of the lively pushback on NACL’s Facebook page:

Awww people jumped on your poll and insulted you. You poor poor persecuted thing. Dude, this is the Internet and I get insulted and threatened with hell everyday. Grow the f*** up and understand that you aren’t persecuted. Some Christians are but you’re not among them.

I’m an American who is tired of Christian legislators trying to push their barbaric religious dogma on me and my family. Please stop. Mind your own business. Thanks.

“Satanists and Atheists piled on this poll”? I think you mean “rational people” there, Pumpkin.

So, you wanna talk about Religious [persecution]? Well, that’s rich coming from Christians! Why don’t we start with the Inquisition, the witch trials, the Crusades and so on, all the way to the Christian-induced Satanic Panic of the 1990s.

I was a Christian for most of my life. During that time I thought having religious politicians was a bad idea. I’m no longer a Christian, but my view on that subject has not changed. Not getting the poll results you’d hoped for isn’t persecution. It’s a reality check.

Another commentor wrote satirically: “My stupid idea for a poll backfired,” and placed this perfect GIF below it:

Translation: My stupid idea for a poll backfired pic.twitter.com/qxlYkGYo1w — savageape (@savag3ap3) February 17, 2020

NACL was founded by Sen. Jason Rapert, an Arkansas state senator who warned in a recruitment email about a proliferation of witches in society, according to a HuffPost report. The group’s board of directors includes such Christian Right luminaries as former Arkansas Gov. (and unsuccessful presidential candidate) Mike Huckabee. Quoting a 2019 Pew Research Center report, the article noted that Congress is overwhelmingly Christian, starkly unrepresentative of U.S. constituents as a whole. To wit, senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., are nearly 90 percent Christian, compared with 65 percent of America overall.

only one current member of Congress, Sen. HuffPost also pointed out that roughly a quarter of Americns now consider themselves atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” which matches up withcurrent member of Congress, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who lists her religion as “ none .” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) self-describes as a humanist, and a smattering of other federal lawmakers haven’t acknowledged whether they have faith or not.

The burning question now is, what Christian group is brave (or clueless) enough to launch another Twitter poll using this same question?

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