The religious statistics, in addition to not taking into account age distributions, also fail to take into account different religious organizations procedures for removing someone from the church rolls. Some churches purge their membership rolls on a regular basis because the national leadership organization assesses "dues" of a sort that each church is supposed to come up with based on local church membership. At the other end of the spectrum would be the Mormons, who often drag their feet or otherwise fail to remove the names of those who no longer wish to be Mormon, even in some cases if the ex-Mormon has written a "letter of resignation" and mailed it to Salt Lake City. An enormous number of younger people have left the Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches and joined "evangelical" denominations or have dropped out of organized religion altogether. Yet there names will often appear on membership rolls in their old churches for decades.
You would have to do a LOT more statistical analysis to figure out which religious groups are underrepresented, and which are not. Social science statistics are always tricky.
I saw an article on the internet a year or so ago written by Jews complaining about Jews being underrepresented as Medal of Honor recipients (I'm not sure "recipient" is the correct terminology -- sorry if I have made a mistake.) I asked my uncle about it (Green Beret, served 3X in Vietnam) and he said more or less what Benjamin said in one of the above posts -- most Jews in the Army in his day were officers in non-combat jobs. I don't think Protestants are underreprented in the Green Berets.
The religious statistics, in addition to not taking into account age distributions, also fail to take into account different religious organizations procedures for removing someone from the church rolls. Some churches purge their membership rolls on a regular basis because the national leadership organization assesses "dues" of a sort that each church is supposed to come up with based on local church membership. At the other end of the spectrum would be the Mormons, who often drag their feet or otherwise fail to remove the names of those who no longer wish to be Mormon, even in some cases if the ex-Mormon has written a "letter of resignation" and mailed it to Salt Lake City. An enormous number of younger people have left the Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches and joined "evangelical" denominations or have dropped out of organized religion altogether. Yet there names will often appear on membership rolls in their old churches for decades.
You would have to do a LOT more statistical analysis to figure out which religious groups are underrepresented, and which are not. Social science statistics are always tricky.
I saw an article on the internet a year or so ago written by Jews complaining about Jews being underrepresented as Medal of Honor recipients (I'm not sure "recipient" is the correct terminology -- sorry if I have made a mistake.) I asked my uncle about it (Green Beret, served 3X in Vietnam) and he said more or less what Benjamin said in one of the above posts -- most Jews in the Army in his day were officers in non-combat jobs. I don't think Protestants are underreprented in the Green Berets.