by Stephen of the Thinkery (sorry, forgot this in the original post)
Gallup just released a poll about Americans' opinions of Mormonism. The results are not surprising, with 46% of the total sample reporting an unfavorable opinion compared to 42% with a favorable opinion. In terms of geographical distribution of opinion, the East had the highest unfavorables (49%), followed by the West (47%), south (46%) and then Midwest (43%). The West was the only part of the country to have a higher favorable rating (50%) than unfavorable; it was also the area with the lowest number of neutral respondents, which should be expected.
A higher percentage of Republicans view Mormonism unfavorably than those religion-hating Democrats, yet another empirical example of the lack of anti-religious bias in the Democratic party that will be ignored. However, when broken down for "ideology," self-identified liberals showed a 61% unfavorable rating. However, it's unlikely that this is due to a knee-jerk reaction to religion, but to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints conservative politics regarding abortion and homosexuality.
