Americans' views on 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems (YouGov poll)

[essentialsaltes]

Kind of interesting poll. I've seen many such things before, but usually limited to a half dozen choices. This one has many more choices (which has some problems of its own, as some things are not as well known as others, so there may not be strong feelings of favorability or unfavorability.)

Net favorability of U.S. religious groups, organizations, and belief systems​

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following groups, organizations, or belief systems in the United States? (Percentage who have a very or somewhat favorable view minus the percentage who have a very or somewhat unfavorable view)

Belief systems that encompass the largest shares of Americans — including Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism — are among the ones the most Americans view favorably. Viewed least favorably are Satanism and Scientology.

A selection:
+34 Christianity
+15 Protestantism
+11 Judaism
+10 Buddhism
+10 Catholicism
-4 Agnostics
-13 Atheism
-21 LDS
-24 Islam
-27 FLDS
-49 tie between Scientology and Satanism

Interesting that 'big tent' Christianity scores the highest, but as soon as you start subdividing, favorability is at best cut in half.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Kind of interesting poll. I've seen many such things before, but usually limited to a half dozen choices. This one has many more choices (which has some problems of its own, as some things are not as well known as others, so there may not be strong feelings of favorability or unfavorability.)

Net favorability of U.S. religious groups, organizations, and belief systems​

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following groups, organizations, or belief systems in the United States? (Percentage who have a very or somewhat favorable view minus the percentage who have a very or somewhat unfavorable view)

Belief systems that encompass the largest shares of Americans — including Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism — are among the ones the most Americans view favorably. Viewed least favorably are Satanism and Scientology.

A selection:
+34 Christianity
+15 Protestantism
+11 Judaism
+10 Buddhism
+10 Catholicism
-4 Agnostics
-13 Atheism
-21 LDS
-24 Islam
-27 FLDS
-49 tie between Scientology and Satanism

Interesting that 'big tent' Christianity scores the highest, but as soon as you start subdividing, favorability is at best cut in half.

It looks to me like word salad. Why would FLDS be so much worse than LDS? FLDS is way too rare to even register for most people. I doubt most people know enough to think so poorly of them. Probably had mostly to do with having 'fundamentalist' in their name more than anything.

 

[essentialsaltes]

It looks to me like word salad. Why would FLDS be so much worse than LDS? FLDS is way too rare to even register for most people.

LDS has given up polygamy, while the FLDS has not. That may have penetrated enough in the general consciousness to make a small, but real, difference.

 

[Bob Crowley]

As a (non-American) Catholic, I was a bit surprised to see Catholicism rated at 10% ahead of any individual protestant group, although Protestantism had a greater overall rating as a whole ie. 15%. This is despite the bad press about the pedophile crisis, althought that wasn't limited to just the Catholic Church. I suppose Latin immigration might have had some bearing.

I think personal familiarity or the lack of it would have some bearing. I don't think too many Americans would have experience of Wicca or Falun Gong for example, so negative opinions would be probably due to lack of experience with those groups.

Islam would obviously be viewed through the filter of 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabian oil and fundamentalism, confrontation with Israel and the Middle East, which would account for some of the negative feedback.

I was also surprised to see a negative rating of 5 or 6 for the two nominated Baptist organisations, since Baptists apparently make up the largest Protestant constituency in the US.

The 15 Largest Protestant Denominations in the United States

The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches assembles various data on churches and denominations across North America I recently gleaned the top 15 denominations by membership in the United States ...

www.christianpost.com

 

[dzheremi]

Interesting that 'big tent' Christianity scores the highest, but as soon as you start subdividing, favorability is at best cut in half.

Not really. Just look around this website to see how unfavorably so-called 'denominations' are seen by many Christians (even when they're communions rather than denominations, as is in the case of Orthodoxy and Catholicism). It's a sign of incredibly-weak-to-non-existent ecclesiology on the part of many American Christians, who are statistically most likely to be the ones answering the poll in the first place (assuming a random sample).

 

[Tuur]

Kind of interesting poll. I've seen many such things before, but usually limited to a half dozen choices. This one has many more choices (which has some problems of its own, as some things are not as well known as others, so there may not be strong feelings of favorability or unfavorability.)

Net favorability of U.S. religious groups, organizations, and belief systems​

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following groups, organizations, or belief systems in the United States? (Percentage who have a very or somewhat favorable view minus the percentage who have a very or somewhat unfavorable view)

Belief systems that encompass the largest shares of Americans — including Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism — are among the ones the most Americans view favorably. Viewed least favorably are Satanism and Scientology.

A selection:
+34 Christianity
+15 Protestantism
+11 Judaism
+10 Buddhism
+10 Catholicism
-4 Agnostics
-13 Atheism
-21 LDS
-24 Islam
-27 FLDS
-49 tie between Scientology and Satanism

Interesting that 'big tent' Christianity scores the highest, but as soon as you start subdividing, favorability is at best cut in half.

My first question, where was this poll conducted, is answered on page 2 of the poll: It was an opt-in poll of YouGov.com's Internet panel. Worse, the poll is mangled by weighting. Read further in the report to see how they came up with that. Thus not only do we have a sampling that's skewed from the start, it's furthered skewed by assumptions. Wouldn't put much stock in it.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Not really. Just look around this website to see how unfavorably so-called 'denominations' are seen by many Christians (even when they're communions rather than denominations, as is in the case of Orthodoxy and Catholicism).

I would say one of the great successes of political conservatism from the days of the Moral Majority in the 1980s to now is the call to 'Judeo-Christian' values uniting all of these disparate elements. 'Sure we have theological differences, but we're united in certain things we really don't like!' I'm not sure even the Klan is anti-Catholic anymore.

I do hear what you're saying about the inhabitants of this site, but I think they (er, we) are not very representative of America.

As a (non-American) Catholic, I was a bit surprised to see Catholicism rated at 10% ahead of any individual protestant group, although Protestantism had a greater overall rating as a whole ie. 15%. This is despite the bad press about the pedophile crisis, althought that wasn't limited to just the Catholic Church. I suppose Latin immigration might have had some bearing.

I think it's more likely that people vote their own religion very favorably. Catholicism is larger than any individual Protestant group in the US. So it gets a large number of favorable votes.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Worse, the poll is mangled by weighting.

Mangled by weighting? Surely the weighting unskews the poll to make it better representative of the nation, rather than representative of the raw sample.

 

[Tuur]

Mangled by weighting? Surely the weighting unskews the poll to make it better representative of the nation, rather than representative of the raw sample.

The problem with weighting is that the ones doing the weighting assumes they know how various aspects of the population would answer. That's entirely too close to making the numbers fit the expected outcome. If they had that good a handle on how the population would respond, they wouldn't have needed to bother with a poll at all. If what we have here happens to be correct, it's of the nature of a blind hog finding an acorn: completely by chance.

 

[Pommer]

I would say one of the great successes of political conservatism from the days of the Moral Majority in the 1980s to now is the call to 'Judeo-Christian' values uniting all of these disparate elements. 'Sure we have theological differences, but we're united in certain things we really don't like!' I'm not sure even the Klan is anti-Catholic anymore.

I do hear what you're saying about the inhabitants of this site, but I think they (er, we) are not very representative of America.


I think it's more likely that people vote their own religion very favorably. Catholicism is larger than any individual Protestant group in the US. So it gets a large number of favorable votes.

I readily admit to not knowing “how statistics work”; I stop before I assume that no-one else does either.

 

[Nithavela]

As a (non-American) Catholic, I was a bit surprised to see Catholicism rated at 10% ahead of any individual protestant group, although Protestantism had a greater overall rating as a whole ie. 15%. This is despite the bad press about the pedophile crisis, althought that wasn't limited to just the Catholic Church. I suppose Latin immigration might have had some bearing.

I think personal familiarity or the lack of it would have some bearing. I don't think too many Americans would have experience of Wicca or Falun Gong for example, so negative opinions would be probably due to lack of experience with those groups.

Islam would obviously be viewed through the filter of 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabian oil and fundamentalism, confrontation with Israel and the Middle East, which would account for some of the negative feedback.

I was also surprised to see a negative rating of 5 or 6 for the two nominated Baptist organisations, since Baptists apparently make up the largest Protestant constituency in the US.

The 15 Largest Protestant Denominations in the United States

The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches assembles various data on churches and denominations across North America I recently gleaned the top 15 denominations by membership in the United States ...

www.christianpost.com

Just normal human behaviour and triablism. It's always easier to be mad at those who are very similiar to you, but different in a few easy to identify places.

By contrast, you have to actually think about stuff like Wicca or Falun Gong (and get through the propaganda in the latter case). For Islam, Hollywood does the thinking for you, much like it did with the USSR before the nineties.

 

[Zoii]

Kind of interesting poll. I've seen many such things before, but usually limited to a half dozen choices. This one has many more choices (which has some problems of its own, as some things are not as well known as others, so there may not be strong feelings of favorability or unfavorability.)

Net favorability of U.S. religious groups, organizations, and belief systems​

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following groups, organizations, or belief systems in the United States? (Percentage who have a very or somewhat favorable view minus the percentage who have a very or somewhat unfavorable view)

Belief systems that encompass the largest shares of Americans — including Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism — are among the ones the most Americans view favorably. Viewed least favorably are Satanism and Scientology.

A selection:
+34 Christianity
+15 Protestantism
+11 Judaism
+10 Buddhism
+10 Catholicism
-4 Agnostics
-13 Atheism
-21 LDS
-24 Islam
-27 FLDS
-49 tie between Scientology and Satanism

Interesting that 'big tent' Christianity scores the highest, but as soon as you start subdividing, favorability is at best cut in half.

The truth about religion is that you adopt the religion of birth. It has nothing to do with the veracity of said religion; it has everything to do with where you are born and the religion of your parents.

If you are born in USA then you are likely to be christian. If born in Pakistan you are likely to be moslem. If born in India you are likely to be Hindu and if born in Thailand then you are likely to be Buddhist.

The truth of said religion has no bearing at all - its all about where you are born.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The problem with weighting is that the ones doing the weighting assumes they know how various aspects of the population would answer.

No. You don't understand what weighting is. There is no such assumption of how people 'would' answer. The answers different groups actually gave are weighted by a factor depending on whether they are over- or under-represented in the sample.

 

[hislegacy]

Kind of interesting poll. I've seen many such things before, but usually limited to a half dozen choices. This one has many more choices (which has some problems of its own, as some things are not as well known as others, so there may not be strong feelings of favorability or unfavorability.)

Net favorability of U.S. religious groups, organizations, and belief systems​

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following groups, organizations, or belief systems in the United States? (Percentage who have a very or somewhat favorable view minus the percentage who have a very or somewhat unfavorable view)

Belief systems that encompass the largest shares of Americans — including Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism — are among the ones the most Americans view favorably. Viewed least favorably are Satanism and Scientology.

A selection:
+34 Christianity
+15 Protestantism
+11 Judaism
+10 Buddhism
+10 Catholicism
-4 Agnostics
-13 Atheism
-21 LDS
-24 Islam
-27 FLDS
-49 tie between Scientology and Satanism

Interesting that 'big tent' Christianity scores the highest, but as soon as you start subdividing, favorability is at best cut in half.

Christianity is the whole of Catholicism, Protestantism combined - of course it would be higher.

That's like saying - Texas is 100%, but once you start looking at individual cities, it becomes a whole lot smaller. When you subdivide an organization - it never results in a higher number.

I'm confused on the need to point it out???

 

[hislegacy]

BTW - according to the link Atheism is -15 not -13

Also most Amish Identify as Christian also so it makes even more sense

Catholicism = 10
+ Amish = 11 - it was left off the op
+ Protestantism = 15
_______________________
= 36

= Christianity 34 - almost spot on.

 

[Tuur]

No. You don't understand what weighting is. There is no such assumption of how people 'would' answer. The answers different groups actually gave are weighted by a factor depending on whether they are over- or under-represented in the sample.

Grin. Making forecasts for a company is something I've done for over three decades now. I know very well what weighting is, and know very well how it can come back to bite you. Which is why you always compare projections with actual results and see how close you are and if not, why.

How they conducted the poll raises a huge red flag. It only gets worst from there. If you had cited, oh, a Pew Research poll, I'd give it more confidence. This one? Uh-uh. This isn't a politics thing. This isn't a religious thing. This is a numbers thing. I don't have a high confidence in this one. If you wish to accept it, fine, but I don't have that much faith in it.

 

[dzheremi]

I would say one of the great successes of political conservatism from the days of the Moral Majority in the 1980s to now is the call to 'Judeo-Christian' values uniting all of these disparate elements. 'Sure we have theological differences, but we're united in certain things we really don't like!'

Yeah...I've never been a fan of that sort of phrasing, but it is definitely a meme of sorts that has penetrated far into the American religious psyche.

I'm not sure even the Klan is anti-Catholic anymore.

I would have to assume that so long as Catholicism is still mostly full of black and brown people (Filipinos, Mexicans, Ugandans, etc.), they probably still are.

I do hear what you're saying about the inhabitants of this site, but I think they (er, we) are not very representative of America.

Normally I would agree (in that I don't think that this website is a good analogue for the USA in general), but when it comes to the attitude regarding this particular aspect of Christianity in the US, I don't think it's as unrepresentative here as I'd like it to be.

 

[grasping the after wind]

The truth about religion is that you adopt the religion of birth. It has nothing to do with the veracity of said religion; it has everything to do with where you are born and the religion of your parents.

If you are born in USA then you are likely to be christian. If born in Pakistan you are likely to be moslem. If born in India you are likely to be Hindu and if born in Thailand then you are likely to be Buddhist.

The truth of said religion has no bearing at all - its all about where you are born.

Not necessarily. Being born into a religion has a huge effect but it doesn't have a particularly strong effect. Most people affiliate with a religion based upon very little. From what I can tell. religion, at least in the West, to the majority of people that affiliate with a religious institution, is a habit formed in childhood that they don't question, don't take all that seriously and, in a lot of cases, don't know much about. However, those that take religion seriously and examine the practice of the religion along with its philosophy and history are unlikely to remain tied to a particular religion just because they were born into it.

 

[Zoii]

Not necessarily. Being born into a religion has a huge effect but it doesn't have a particularly strong effect. Most people affiliate with a religion based upon very little. From what I can tell. religion, at least in the West, to the majority of people that affiliate with a religious institution, is a habit formed in childhood that they don't question, don't take all that seriously and, in a lot of cases, don't know much about. However, those that take religion seriously and examine the practice of the religion along with its philosophy and history are unlikely to remain tied to a particular religion just because they were born into it.

Thats not what the evidence suggests. There is a strong correlation between religion and nationalism - secondly ardent students of religion exist regardless of said religion - You study the religion of your birth. Religion is 99% about what religion your parents have and where you live - that's it.

Religious nationalism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Hans Blaster]

Not necessarily. Being born into a religion has a huge effect but it doesn't have a particularly strong effect. Most people affiliate with a religion based upon very little. From what I can tell. religion, at least in the West, to the majority of people that affiliate with a religious institution, is a habit formed in childhood that they don't question, don't take all that seriously and, in a lot of cases, don't know much about. However, those that take religion seriously and examine the practice of the religion along with its philosophy and history are unlikely to remain tied to a particular religion just because they were born into it.

In the US there are "groupings" of denominations. Within in those groups many people move rather freely without resistance for often trivial reasons, but also because the find the practice or theology of another faction closer to there own thinking. This happens for people of all levels of religious commitment. (For example, your profile indicates you are Lutheran. From my experience, that affiliation is largely ethnic (Germans, Scandinavians, etc.) but moving from one Lutheran synod to another is fairly common.)

Moving from one "grouping" to another is a bit "stiffer". Sometimes it happens because people don't really see a difference between them. ("A church is a church.") Sometime is happens because someone studies the theology and finds a different group to be "better".

A lot of people who *do* study their own faith tradition deeply become *more* convinced that it is the right form. For example, I've known a lot of Catholics that studied Catholic theology and became even more dedicated to its tenants. I (as a born Catholic, raised in the Church) never really contemplated leaving that grouping for some other form of Christianity, instead I slowly faded away and left religion all together.

The groupings that I see in American Christianity (and some, including the official CF position, may not see all as "Christian", but whatever) are:

Catholics
Orthodox
Lutherans
Mainline "British" protestants (Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians)
Evangelicals
Mormons
JW

Some of these groups are very different, while some the intergroup flow is a bit easier (Lutherans to British mainline for example).

If I were still a believer, but had lost my notions of papal supermacy, I'd probably give the Lutherans or Episcopalians a try. The evangelicals with their "born again" enthusiasms seemed weird to me back in the day and they still do.