What Do People Know About Latter-day Saints?

Stephen C

•

What do People Know About the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Members sometimes have this image of what the normie gentiles think about us (one that often that neatly fits into our view of how the Church should change), when in fact hardly anybody knows anything about us beyond the basics, and sometimes not even that. 

The most recent survey about this that I am aware of was one I was involved with with the BHR Roberts Foundation’s 2022 National Latter-day Saint Survey. It found:

  • Only about half of Americans know that Latter-day Saints consider Jesus to be the son of God.
  • About a quarter believe that Latter-day Saints can’t have blood transfusions.
  • 1/3 believe that Latter-day Saints still practice polygamy.
  • About half know that Latter-day Saints can’t drink alcohol
  • About 15% believe that Latter-day Saints can’t eat chocolate.

This abysmal state of religious knowledge is reflected in older surveys.

In 2010 a Pew survey asked:

When was the Mormon religion founded? (44% answered correctly)

   After 1800, 

   Between 1200 and 1800, 

   Before 1200 A.D.? 

The Book of Mormon tells of Jesus appearing to people in what area? (40%) 

   The Americas

   Middle East

   Asia 

Was Joseph Smith (51%) 

   Mormon

   Catholic

   Jewish

   Buddhist

   Hindu

If you do the math the top two are slightly better than guessing, so for a lot of your gentile neighbors, if you tell them you’re Mormon for all they know you’re practicing a thousand year old religion that teaches that Jesus appeared to Asians (although the Middle East is technically Asia). 

In 2018 Pew repeated the Joseph Smith question, and America scored a little better at 58%. Optimistically, maybe the various Mormon moments in the media eventually led to people having at least a basic knowledge of the Church, or maybe it was just the kind of survey-to-survey fluke variation that you sometimes see. 

However, I suspect we can assume that people who are basically religiously active and knowledgeable almost universally at least know that Joseph Smith is connected to the Church. As evidence for this, 98% of respondents of a survey of active members and clergy of Presbyterian USA, a mainline Protestant denomination, correctly connected Joseph Smith to Mormonism. 

What else do people know or think about us besides raw knowledge of the basics? A somewhat dated Gallup survey asked “Next, we’d like you to think about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. What comes to mind when you think about this religion?”

Unsurprisingly, polygamy comes in first at 18%, then Utah at 10%, then Good people/Kind/Caring/Strong morals at 8%, and Dislike their beliefs/ Don’t agree with their doctrine/False teachings at 6%. So we fit in the kind of respected-in-some-quarters but hated in others type that I’d expect God’s authorized Church to fit into.

Comments

12 responses to “What Do People Know About Latter-day Saints?”

  1. Not a Cougar

    Stephen, having grown up outside the Latter-day Saint corridor my entire life, I can’t say that I’m all that surprised about the results of the survey for a few reasons. First, while we try very hard to get our name out there (we certainly put a lot of effort into missionary work), objectively, we’re still not a household name in the United States. Yes, we claim nearly 7 million people on the rolls, and even taking that number on its face, we’re still under 2% of the population with much of that being very concentrated in the inter-mountain West. When talking about eh United States, in terms of size, we’re closer to the National Baptist Convention than we are the Southern Baptist Convention, let alone the Catholic Church.

    Second, we’ve expended a lot of social capital in maintaining or adopting standards and conventions that don’t line up with American Protestant Christianity (at least up until President Nelson), and we can’t be too shocked when that results in Americans not lumping us in with other Christians. For example, in the mid-20th century, we stopped completely any and all uses of the cross as a symbol in an effort to, as I understand it, distance ourselves from being lumped in with Catholics as “undesirables” by Protestant America (and apologies for any oversimplification). We can argue whether that decision was wise in the long run, but I will point out that the Church appears to have softened on that point at least slightly as our meetinghouses are now identified by a cross symbol on Google Maps (at least they are where I live).

    Third, to be honest, I’m not sure how much the average American would be able to say about any given Christian denomination, not just the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Whether that’s because most Americans don’t really study religion (their own or others) or because we’re far enough from the mainstream that we just aren’t common knowledge, I can’t say for certain, but I would suspect it’s the former. As evidence of that, off the top of your head, what do you know about the origins of the Baptist movement and how it got to America? How many people would be able to name Roger Williams (often credited with founding the first Baptist church in the United States) as an important person in Baptist history? Would the average person know the difference between the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention? I certainly don’t, and I’d argue that I’m a lot better read on religion in than most Americans (which isn’t saying much!).

  2. SDS

    In support of not-Cougar’s last point: Recently in our ward, a brother who has been a bishop and member of the high council (and who is btw a wonderful man compared to whom I am a spiritual peon) said in a Sacrament Meeting talk that our church is the only church in the world that includes the name of Christ in the name of the church. I truly love and admire this man, but I’m thinking: how can any literate person today possibly say that? It’s an extreme instance, maybe, but I constantly hear from our members embarrassingly wrong-headed assertions about what other churches did, do, or believe. So it does run both ways.

  3. Stephen C

    Not a Cougar and SDS: Oh definitely, religious literacy is bad across the board (according to that Pew survey only about half of Americans could name the four books of the gospels). However, we tend to score higher than most: in that same Latter-day Saints scored higher than any other group besides atheists. But yes, I take the point and agree we could know more. I’ll quibble a little on the comparison with Protestant denominational history, simply because denominational differences (arguably) don’t really matter anymore in the American landscape (Southern Baptists [arguably] have more with the Lutheran-Missouri Synod than they do with the American Baptist Churches USA), so the appropriate analog would be people not knowing Aquinas is connected to Catholicism, or knowing that Charles Taze Russell is connected to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

  4. SDS

    Good points, Stephen. And I confess that I didn’t know about Charles Taze Russell, so mea culpa.

  5. KLC

    The problem is not what they don’t know about the Mormon church, the problem is what they are sure they know that isn’t true.

  6. Stephen C

    Wait, you mean I can’t have multiple wives and “John Smith” didn’t find the “Gold Bible”?

  7. LHL

    Despite some of the research….I think millions of people of heard enough and think they know enough about Latter Day Saints and The Mormons that they’re becoming more vocal in declaring “Please leave us the H*ll alone – you’ve Knocked our Door so Many Times – we Just Can’t take it Any Longer”

    I simply can’t imagine being on a Mission these days and attempting to engage someone to become interested in “The Church”. With the possible exception being…..Africa.

  8. COFFINBERRY

    Re: “our meetinghouses are now identified by a cross symbol”

    Have you ever seen an overhead image of the Fort Collins Temple? It is a cross. During its open house, a decade ago, one visitor mentioned that he had seen the cross while flying overhead, and was thrilled to get to see the inside of what he figured was a very special place.

  9. John Taber

    Once on my mission in Italy, my companion (who was branch president) and I went to see a recent convert who hadn’t come to church in a little while. While we were there, we popped a tape into the VCR and watched Our Heavenly Father’s Plan and Together Forever together.

    Her mother watched as well, and told us at the end, “You show Christ, but not on the cross.” It wouldn’t surprise me if she hadn’t seen that sort of thing before. Most pictures of Christ there showed him on the cross, often with the heart showing.

  10. Not a Cougar

    Coffinberry, thanks for sharing. I would not be surprised if the architect/s for that temple drew inspiration from the classic cross layout of so many European cathedrals.

  11. Dave K

    Coffinberry,
    The inside decor of the Fort Collins temple has a decidedly different prominent image – Elk. We like to style our temples to local symbols. Somehow elk became the theme for this one. But – to my wife’s dismay – it’s not just a solo elk here or there. It’s always a group of cows being led by a bull. I mentioned to her once “is this a subtle reintroduction of polygamy?” I meant it as a joke but she can’t visit that temple now without feeling a bit of trauma. Thankfully it’s not our assigned temple, just our backup when ours is closed.

  12. RL

    What others believe or know about the faith/Church is likely mostly a subjective imaginal exercise.

    Most of us aren’t exposed to a broad representation of the country. We get glimpses on missions or at Grad school or at work but usually keep to our tribes with occasional adventures out.

    Subjectively in the past year my Mexican neighbor went to Church once and said there was a good feeling. My black coworker knew about the priesthood ban and Gladys but didn’t know about garments or temples.

    Guessing about the gen pop Housewives or M Wives fans know about those shows. Broadways folks know the broadway show. But not sure they represent. Honestly most folks probably know a bit more than members know about Sikhs.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.