Public perceptions of LDS and other Religious Groups


prisonchaplain
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According to an article from this site Pew says Americans view LDS with a 48% positive score, Evangelicals with 61%.  Younger respondents gave lower scores for both, and they gave higher scores for Muslims.

 

http://lds.net/blog/buzz/new-study-reveals-americans-view-mormons/

 

I'm wondering how much of this is based on perceived political influence.  Thanks to the last election, and to the Prop. 8 campaign, LDS are more directly perceived as skewing conservative--especially on social values.  Muslims are perceived as a poorly treated minority, whom progressives are likely to defend.

 

Am I wrong about how political perceptions may have colored the polling?

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I found this all very interesting as well. I think it is likely the younger generation is being more and more indoctrinated to believe that religion of all types is ridiculous, lumping it into the same category as magic, myths, and fables. However also having trouble differentiating between ethnicity and religion, especially as it pertains to Arabs and Islam. Thus while disliking the religiosity and doctrine - especially those perceived to be oppressive to women, they still feel compelled to "be nice" to the ethnic minority because that is what they have been programmed to do.

 

As a side note I was curious to have stats on the religious affiliation of respondents. What percentage of respondents were Christians? What percentage were Muslims? What percentage Hindu and other? Of the Christians how many were Catholic, Evangelical, or LDS? How much did the sampling bias the results?

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BTW, I believe PEW has a good reputation for its polls.

PEW has an excellent reputation. I use them quite frequently for class assignments, mostly from the PEW Internet and American Life Project, because they poll on hot society & tech topics and the data is new. I don't have to use the government's old data from 2010, for example.

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According to an article from this site Pew says Americans view LDS with a 48% positive score, Evangelicals with 61%.  Younger respondents gave lower scores for both, and they gave higher scores for Muslims.

 

http://lds.net/blog/buzz/new-study-reveals-americans-view-mormons/

 

I'm wondering how much of this is based on perceived political influence.  Thanks to the last election, and to the Prop. 8 campaign, LDS are more directly perceived as skewing conservative--especially on social values.  Muslims are perceived as a poorly treated minority, whom progressives are likely to defend.

 

Am I wrong about how political perceptions may have colored the polling?

well whenever i overhear something in the background its generally that lds are cultist (negatively), or if its about muslims its about equal or worse.

Youre probably right tho. For example it was interesting lisstening to my parents account of their trip to mid east jordan... Because of romneys run for president they had multiple opportunities to share about their beliefs. One lady mentioned that she looked up Lds beliefs to know more about romney and concluded that america voted for the wrong man.

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Generally any Christian denomination is widely accepted around in my area for the most part, aside from the JW's due to their door knocking which I hear does more bad than good. LDS are primarily Conservative from what I understand, I don't know a single liberal in my YSA Ward which is surprising as younger tends to lean left in their views. 

 

Muslims tends to be not as accepted due to their more judgmental views on those of us who do not follow their faith or belief system. Liberals in general tend to feel the need to help the 'underdog' so to speak, even if it means not addressing more important issues. Prime example is us giving money to countries that burn our flag rather than trying to fix our own country first...

 

Despite this belief that the LDS Church is very Conservative alot of Evangelical Christians actually chose to simply not vote in this last election because they did not feel comfortable with a Mormon being President. I actually briefly dated a girl who comes from a very Evangelical household. She is very open minded, however her family is not so welcoming. They banned me from the house because of my LDS beliefs, essentially breaking up our relationship. Not very Christ-like I would say but to each their own I suppose. Not even a single invite to attend a Sunday service with them.

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I actually briefly dated a girl who comes from a very Evangelical household. She is very open minded, however her family is not so welcoming. They banned me from the house because of my LDS beliefs, essentially breaking up our relationship. Not very Christ-like I would say but to each their own I suppose. Not even a single invite to attend a Sunday service with them.

 

While the LDS I've encountered here tend to be more open-minded about inter-faith dated, most have also understood why most evangelicals forbid it.  The Apostle Paul writes about not being unequally yoked in 1 Cor 7.  We take his counsel to mean that we should not marry outside of our faith.  As a young person, I was also warned about the folly of "missionary dating."  What we meant by that is it was wrong to date someone with the hopes of converting him/her.  Better not to date someone we could not marry.

 

So, while your experience may have struck you as cold-hearted, it was very honest and open.  In that sense, it was christ-like. 

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