Gallup Poll on Mormonism

Gallup has a new opinion poll out on Mormonism that delves into the statistics showing that more than a quarter of Americans will vote for an otherwise well-qualified presidential candidate who is a Mormon. The key findings are:

• Americans who are more religious (as measured by frequency of church attendance) and those who are Protestant have highly negative views of the Mormon religion. The differences in views of Mormons among groups defined by their church attendance are significant. There is a net negative view of -21 points among Americans who attend church weekly, contrasted with a net positive view of +10 among those who seldom or never attend church.
  
  
• Protestants are significantly more negative in their views than Catholics, who are the most positive group by religion.
  
  
• There are minor partisan differences. Republicans are slightly more negative in their views of Mormons than are either independents or Democrats.
  
  
• There is a major difference by ideological group. Liberals are extremely negative in their views on a relative basis; 28% have favorable opinions and 61% unfavorable opinions. By contrast, conservatives are essentially evenly divided in their views, while moderates break to the positive side, with 48% favorable and 40% unfavorable opinions.
  
  
• Opinions of Mormons are better formed in the West, where the preponderance of Mormons live, and are slightly more positive than negative. Only 3% of those living in the West have no opinion whatever of Mormons.
  

Opinion of the Mormon Religion by Subgroup
		Total favor- able	Total unfavor- able	Net Favor- able	Don't know/ No opinion
		%	%	pct. pts.	%
Total sample		42	46	-4	11
Region	East	41	49	-8	11
	Midwest	40	43	-3	18
	South	40	46	-6	14
	West	50	47	+3	3
Party	Republican	42	52	-10	5
	Independent	43	40	+3	18
	Democrat	43	47	-4	11
Ideology	Conservative	44	45	-1	10
	Moderate	48	40	+8	13
	Liberal	28	61	-33	11
Church attendance	Weekly	34	55	-21	11
	Nearly weekly/ Monthly	41	47	-6	12
	Seldom/ Never	49	39	+10	11
Religion	Total Christian	43	45	-2	11
	Protestant	36	52	-16	13
	Catholic	56	31	+25	12
	Non-Christian	39	46	-7	15
	None	39	46	-7	14