New study finds 'intense' anti-Mormon bias

Well, Mitt Romney gives his much-anticipated speech on faith this morning, hoping to defuse the unspoken, whispered and surreptitiously e-mailed concerns about his Mormon religion. As we reported here, the former Massachusetts governor intends to speak less about Mormonism than about "Faith in America."

The speech at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, will be carried live on C-SPAN 3 and C-SPAN Radio at 7:30 a.m. Pacific time and rebroadcast on C-SPAN 2 at 6 p.m. Pacific time, followed by a tape of John Kennedy's famous speech on his Catholic faith from Sept. 12, 1960.

When Kennedy sought to defuse concerns over his faith during the 1960 campaign, 28% of the country's population was Catholic, and evangelicals were largely Democrats. Today, barely 2% of Americans are Mormon. Today's remarks, which Romney wrote himself, have been debated for months in his camp.

There are risks to this approach, as some of his advisors advised him. Many Americans don't know he's Mormon. They will now. And while the latest Los Angeles Times poll showed 73% of Republican voters don't really care what his religion is, that also means that 27% do. Many evangelicals regard Mormonism as a cult.

A new study of 1,200 released Wednesday and described on Politico.com by three political science professors was designed to assess bias against Mormons. According to John Geer of Vanderbilt University, the study found anti-Mormon bias "significantly more intense" than prejudice against black Americans and women.

Among the survey's findings: Anti-Mormon bias among evangelicals rivals their bias against atheists. Half of those surveyed don't even know one Mormon. Those who do not know Romney's religion exhibit much greater bias upon learning of it. But hearing statements such as "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stresses traditional family values" or "about 100 years ago the Mormon Church banned polygamy" seems to assuage some anti-Mormon feelings.

Disturbingly, what has no effect on anti-Mormon sentiments, the study found, are simple appeals for religious tolerance.

For more information on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, go to its official website here.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Martin]

Welcome to my world. I can remember when I was 6 years old other kids telling me I was not a Christian. At the time Whittier had several evangelical churches that were teaching very harsh anti-Mormon sermons. They would teach kids questions to harass other Mormons that distort our beliefs. When the San Diego Temple was open to the public, these churches sent people to hand out highly offensive anti Mormon literature on the sidewalk just outside the front gates. It was designed to look like a simple newspaper reporting on the open house, with many pictures of temple. The people handing them out dressed like Mormon missionaries, but when you read the articles it was straight anti Mormon literature with distortions like "Do know that Mormons believe Jesus and Satan are blood brothers?" To anti Mormons the ends justify the means. They lie and distort our teaching, but if they manage to keep a single person from investigating the Church then they feel it was justified.
I hope americans today will see past the propoganda and realize that Mitt is no danger to them, but rather the type of person we are always hoping will run office.

[Bob]

Wrong--not *some* but *most* evangelicals consider Mormonism a cult.

[tarbubble]

well, thanks for confirming that i'm not a paranoiac. we LDS learn pretty young that a lot of people automatically hate us. Martin is right, they teach their kids to hate us too. it's no wonder some of us turn insular and "stick to our own kind," when at least 50% of the time you can expect to be verbally spit on once somebody finds out you're LDS. I'm not ashamed of my religion, but i always dread the time when the subject comes up with new acquaintances. it's so impossible to predict who will turn ugly and who will not. At least it has taught me to be compassionate and accepting of other people with socially unpopular beliefs (yes, including those that my religion's tenets oppose). I have a hard time turning the other cheek and blessing those who persecute me, but i try to understand where they are coming from, too.

btw, i'm not an automatic Mitt supporter - i'm not even a Republican (i have no political affiliation).

[Adam]

Instead of going to PBS, why don't you try going to the Mormon church's official website. www.lds.org. Believe it or not, PBS isn't the source of all knowledge.

[Dave]

It will be the Country's loss if Mitt Romney is not our next President. I am a Mitt supporter and I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (I'm Mormon). I support Mitt, not because he is Mormon but because he is conservative. (If Harry Reid were running for President he would only get my vote if there was no conservative in the contest.) Just as Mitt said, if he doesn't get elected because of his religion "so be it". I repeat It will be the country's loss. He is by far the most qualified candidate. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He made millions in the private sector heading Bain Capital, he turned around the 2002 winter olympics, and turned the state of Massachusetts around as its governor. He married his high school sweet heart and together they are the parents of five sons who are all married and having families of their own. We need a man like Mitt Romney leading this country. Will I vote for the Baptist if he gets the Republican nomination, Yes. But in the meantime I will do all I can to help Mitt win the nomination. And one more thing; I agree totally with Adam. The writers of the P...BS documentary on my faith are part of the 27% who think we are the anti-Christ. Don't be scared, "by their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). Go to the source to learn the truth about Mormons www.mormon.com, or ask your neighbor, your doctor, your dentist, your chiropractor, your lawyer or someone else who happens to be a Mormon if you want to know the truth about our faith. Or you could kindly invite the young men or young women into your home who are devoting two years of their lives to preaching the gospel to every creature, as Christ commanded (Mark 16:15). Go MItt!

[John Walker]

Could it be that humankind is on the verge of a breakthrough in settling the ongoing conflict between reason and faith? In a moment of rare candor from a religious spokesperson, Scott Gordon of the Mormon group FAIR admitted that "the foundational story of Christianity, that [Christ] was raised from the dead, is also not rational." Mr. Gordan's remark explicitly confirms the irrationality of not only Mormon but also Christian mythology dating back 2 millennium.

Which makes it all the more astounding that Governor Romney and others would return us to the Dark Ages in exchange for the Christian conservative vote. As the American political landscape becomes evermore faith-based, one hopes there is at least one Presidential candidate with the courage to point out Article VI of the U.S. Constitution plainly states
"no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Until then we can only worry and wonder why a political constituency rooted in irrational faith is still taken seriously 3 centuries after the Enlightenment.