Opinion: New study finds ‘intense’ anti-Mormon bias

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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