https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/5/23433846/survey-latter-day-saints-are-everywhere-in-media-but-americans-still-know-little-about-them


Excerpts:

The media spotlight shining on Latter-day Saints on television and social media may seem like a sequel to the “Mormon Moment,” but a new national survey shows that most Americans still know very little about them and their beliefs.


“The amount of ignorance people had about the church was shocking,” said Josh Coates, the executive director of the B.H. Roberts Foundation, which published the study and is best known for its Mormonr brand. “I mean, two-thirds of the people that responded either thought we practice polygamy, or they weren’t sure if we practice polygamy.”


“The biggest takeaway for me is that the more you know about Latter-day Saints, the more you like them. The less you know about Latter-day Saints, the more you dislike them,” Coates said.


“Most people don’t actually like or dislike us, they don’t really even think about us much,” he said. “They don’t know much about us and they’re neutral on Latter-day Saints, both the church and the people.”


“There’s a whole wide world out there and people don’t know us,” he said.


“Especially nowadays, there’s so much media about Latter-day Saints over the last year or two, and most of it has not been flattering, and that is one of the top ways people learn about us. That’s kind of a bummer, I think. But that’s not going to change. We’re a really interesting topic, apparently.”


“The more religious you are, the more friendly you are toward Latter-day Saints,” Coates said.


“The fastest-growing belief system is the non-belief system. In fact, several surveys indicate that roughly 1 in 3 Americans are no longer affiliated with a religion.”


The most Latter-day Saint friendly religious group was Muslims, according to the survey, possibly because their beliefs match those of Latter-day Saints in numerous ways, from abstinence from alcohol to the importance of families to the wearing of sacred clothing, Coates said."

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It's interesting that Coates mentioned "sacred clothing" because even though g's are sacred not secret, they're not often referred to publicly. You'd think an interviewer may have a follow up question to that comment. So is he comparing hijabs, burqas or long robes to garmies? I've never heard that before.

I also wonder about the comment that the more religious a person is the more friendly they are towards Mormons. It can get pretty tribal out there.

Perhaps an exmo's favourite line in the article would be "There's a whole wide world out there and people don't know us."

Fifty-thousand mishies out and about, in addition to the hordes that have gone before, and still "people don't know us". That's gotta be discouraging for the Men in Suits back in S.L.C.

Too, that polygamy thing just won't die. No wonder, as the offensive practice, introduced by the founders of Mormonism, continues to reverberate down through the generations. Too, there are those like Jeffs et al who keep the practice alive. We used to do it but we don't any more is kind of a weak response to questions about polygamy. It's not something easy to just get over, for those adversely affected by it and everyone who finds the teaching distasteful in the extreme.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2022 03:22PM by Nightingale.

If a woman is sealed to a TBM male, and she chooses to leave the church and divorce him, can he marry in the temple during the ex-wife's life?

Isn't that basically the same as Rusty being with Wendy now?

Certainly the church has nothing against a man being sealed to two women, and earth-legalities being what they are, the man's second marriage is not illegal, so it makes sense to me that on earth the guy only has one wife, but regarding the eternities, he's off to a head start, over the rest of lollygaggers.



Too bad the church wouldn't respect the results of a worldwide survey on the issue of "Is the mormon church the one and only true church?"

elderolddog Wrote:
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> Too bad the church wouldn't respect the results of
> a worldwide survey on the issue of "Is the mormon
> church the one and only true church?"

Yeah, I would seriously question this statement in the article:

“The more religious you are, the more friendly you are toward Latter-day Saints,” Coates said.


That is not my impression.

Although maybe he means that religious people are more likely to look favourably on other religious folks than are non-religious folks?

Outside of Utah maybe, Mormons aren't out and about in any ways that would foster friendliness. Not that I've ever noticed anyway.

The thing about intrusive proselytizing gets in the way and the teaching about being the one and only truth, if only by inference.

My mom and dad were married in the SLC Temple in 1948. They were divorced in 1964, and it was final in 1965 (you had to wait a year for it to be FINAL in those days).

My dad remarried in mid 1967, and I do not think the ever set foot into an LDS chapel again except to see my TBM brothers three kids be blessed.

My mom was considered a slut by all the TBM ladies on our street for 3 or 4 years, until she remarried in December 1968. She did not do anything with LDS until early to middle 90's. She found religion again in early 2000's, and convinced my step-dad to convert. She wanted to be sealed to step-dad.

I found it ironic that my DAD, who had nothing to do with LDS for almost 40 years had to be asked and agree to my mom's sealing to him being cancelled, so she could be sealed to my step-dad.

Such tomfoolery!

>>I found it ironic that my DAD, who had nothing to do with LDS for almost 40 years had to be asked and agree to my mom's sealing to him being cancelled, so she could be sealed to my step-dad.

That's disgusting.

Well, as we all know, women shouldn't be able to make decisions about themselves. ;-[

-And it works both ways.....the amount of ignorance the church members have about non-mormons is shocking! Shocking I tell you!

A few years ago, the new guy on my "team" was a RM. I think he knew that I had been a member as his Dad had been the Bishop where I was residing at the time. The person assigned to train him was a run-of-the-mill coffee drinker.

Well the coffee mug really bothered him. He sort of freaked out as if the whiffs of steam and aroma was going to permanently damage his body. He actually moved the cup to the opposite side of the table.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2022 05:19PM by messygoop.

They have to get a temple divorce before he can remarry in the temple for time and all f’in eternity. It used to be that the first presidency had to approve it. I don’t know if that’s still the case.

I've found with nevermos that it is in fact true, if you mention Mormonism to them, the first word they associate it with is polygamy. The people that I've talked to are quite well aware that polygamy is no longer practiced by the Brighamite church, but the distaste for it lingers.

Yes, summer, their problem is that it is a founding principle. Pretty hard to duck that no matter how much time goes by.

Somewhat like the JWs and their long-term and best known doctrine about Armageddon, giving various time periods for its occurrence and yet it has still never happened.

They've quietly backed off giving dates and have formulated an explanation about why former leaders were incorrect in their specific forecasts. Along the lines of more light cometh 'n like that.

Mormons are tied into polygamy in the general public's minds.

JWs into Armageddon and the failed prophecies.

Likely won't change in forever.

I hope you corrected them regarding the plural marriage issue because it absolutely, from the mormon point of view, is being practiced currently.  Rusty has two eternal wives (maybe three, but Sheri ain't saying...) and there are plenty of others whose earthly church records testify to the ongoing practice, because practice makes perfect.

And one wonders what shenanigans will be going on in the Dubai temple, which is in a country that allows plural marriage. (Okay, one hopes...)

You know, EOD, you are right about that. That will give me new avenues of conversation. :)

So church leaders are dismayed that the world is ignorant of the most true church on Earth. Here's my list (of no particular order) of what gets TBM's garments twisted out of shape when talking to non-members.

1. Don't call us Mormons.
2. We have a prophet and YOU had better respect him.
3. We are not racists or bigots. Don't judge us but we are allowed to judge you.
4. We have General Conference twice a year. The messages are for everyone. [Actually GC is neither for investigators nor members. The messages are only for members in "good standing". My companion and I was rebuked by the Mission President for encouraging less active members and investigators to attend GC]
5. Our temples are sacred not secret. And we're not going to tell you what really goes on inside.

the less I liked them. Dealing with the leaders close up was eye opening. Every now and then, like recently with my son, I've had those moments where I think maybe I should go back to church, but that lasts a mere second or two.

I don't have wonder how I found myself in this situation.

I'm the one who picked up the pieces. Didn't get any help from them.

There is a really ugly underbelly to the church and I found it in the leaders more than anywhere else.

cl2notloggedin Wrote:
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>
> There is a really ugly underbelly to the church
> and I found it in the leaders more than anywhere
> else.


That is an excellent summation.

You have your ocassional leader who tries, but overall they have their own agenda. Overall they claim that they are lead by the spirit in acheiving that agenda. However, members always mention that they did not like this Bishop, or that Stake President, but they still blindly follow.....A con man's dream!

And are Mormons interested in other religions and cultures other than their own? Not usually.

I was struck by the following sentences from the article:

"Coates also was surprised that 46% of Americans have never talked to a Latter-day Saint missionary, and that about half of those surveyed said they don’t have friends or family who are church members."

Mr. Coates, please tell me that you are kidding! I mean, outside of the so-called Moridor, (Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming), members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have never made up more than a miniscule percentage of the populations of individual states and cities so there should be no surprise in this finding at all.

And if truth be told, the closer non-Mormons live to Mormons, the less the Non-Mormons like Latter-day Saint church members. I still recall a trip we took to Rock Springs, Wyoming in the early 1990s. We toured a museum up there (I can't remember its name now), and the tour guides, a man and a woman, both residents of Rock Springs, had nothing but bad things to say about Mormons, especially those who came from Utah. They knew right away when they saw my parents and myself that we were not LDS, which is why they took us in to their confidence on this matter.

I also remember my best friend telling me, when I was considering dating an LDS woman back in 2008, that a close friend of his family did marry an LDS woman back in the 1990s. According to my best friend, neither he nor his family ever saw that person again once that person married in to the LDS religion. (His story, along with things I was reading here and elsewhere, convinced me to drop any ideas of dating the LDS woman.)

More accurately most Americans don’t care about Mormons or their beliefs.

I believe most people have a casual indifference to Mormonism. I played Saturday in a small jazz group at a market on the mountain. It is well attended. The majority of the time they have country or gospel. We were apparently a bit of hit as our music was quite a change of pace. The manager said they wished we could play every week. While we were playing, a pair of sister missionaries came in. They were immediately recognizable by their dowdy clothing and name tags. On break, I watched for a few minutes as they strolled around the market trying to make conversation with folks. The market shoppers and vendors were polite to the missionaries, but it was clear (at least to my jaded perspective) that these people were happy when the missionaries moved on to other potential victims. No one that I could see had any interest in what these unfortunate young women were selling.

I think more and more people are viewing LDS as a business-religion with a touch of pioneer old west and a pinch of Scientology weirdness. They seem kind of quaint now.

People see the missionaries on bikes dressed as business wannabes. They see Mormons have been up to some of the same old tricks Catholics use when it comes to abuse management and suppression of women.

People saw when the world had a pandemic, a lot of church activity made it worse. It exposed that with all their money and miracle talk, they did very little to help with anything.

As families have become more diverse, their "family" message isn't as big of a draw. Once someone reads the Proclamation on the Family, people will be turned off if they are not traditional or regressive leaning.

I can see someone very vulnerable and uninformed being attracted to the church as some kind of support group. I can see people wanting a group that supposedly provides trusted friends for their children and activities. I don't think the temple is going to be seen as a great thing for people trying to spend more time with their kids.

Really works both ways.
After years of 'Every member a missionary', most Mormons have no interest in anyone outside their religion unless the persona is seen as a potential convert.

>> The amount of ignorance people had about the church was shocking <<

And just whose fault is that? Care to set everyone straight LDS? No matter what they let the public know, there will always be an equal amount or more that they hide from them.

And it works both ways.....the amount of ignorance the church members have about non-mormons is shocking! Shocking I tell you!

IF Mormons were honest they wouldn’t say, ”We used to do it but we don't any more.” They’d say,”We used to practice polygamy, until the Feds threatened to destroy the church financially, so we quit the practice, out of financial interests, but we maintain the belief that polygamy is God’s ideal form of marriage and is a necessary practice in Mormon heaven.”
But MORmONs lie by omission everyday they fail to disclose that fact.

The entire temple divorce policy has always confirmed my belief that the church doesn't want to deal with their failed church policies about marriage and families. First, they rush young people into marriage, discourage long term dating/courtships, forbidden pre marital sex. Then when a marriage fails (and about 50% eventually do) they make a very difficult process to get a temple divorce. The church screws up people's lives.