How Americans View Mormon Religion

As students at a Christian university debate the invitation of a presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, a Mormon, to speak at their upcoming commencement ceremony, a new Gallup poll found that Americans' favorable and unfavorable views of the Mormon religion are almost evenly split.

According to poll results, 46 percent of Americans say they have an unfavorable opinion of the Mormon religion in general while 42 percent have a favorable opinion.

Americans who are more religious, based on church attendance, have highly negative views of the religion. People who attend church on a weekly basis are more likely to have an unfavorable than favorable view of the religion (55 to 34 percent). For those who attend on a nearly weekly to monthly basis, poll results were 47 to 41 percent in unfavorable to favorable views. And among Americans who seldom or never attend church, they are more likely to have a favorable than unfavorable view of the Mormon religion (49 to 39 percent).

Religious groups also showed varying opinions of the religion. According to the poll, 52 percent of Protestants have an unfavorable view and 36 percent have a favorable one. Catholics are the most positive group where 31 percent have an unfavorable opinion and 56 percent have a favorable opinion. Meanwhile, 46 percent of non-Christians have an unfavorable view and 39 percent have a favorable one.

Divided by ideology, liberals are more likely to have an unfavorable view (61 percent) than a favorable one (28 percent) while 45 percent of conservatives showed negative views of the religion compared to 44 percent who showed positive views.

When asked what comes to mind first when they think about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon church, the most listed term was "polygamy" among both parties who have favorable and unfavorable opinions. Those holding favorable views of the Mormon religion also listed "good people/kind/caring/strong morals" while those with unfavorable views listed "dislike their beliefs/don't agree with their doctrine/false teachings."

The Gallup results, based on a national sample of 1,018 adults, come after Regent University, an evangelical Christian institution, announced Romney as the school's commencement speaker for May. The announcement drew debates on campus with some students saying a Mormon speaker would "confuse young Christians who are not so firmly grounded in Christian doctrine."

Regent founder Pat Robertson has not endorsed Romney. Still, Christians outside the Regent campus have also raised concern, arguing that Romney's religious beliefs are contradictory to the basic doctrines of orthodox Christianity. Robertson had also posted on his Christian Broadcasting Network website that the Mormons, although prosperous, are "far from the truth" when it comes to spiritual matters.

Romney joins a diverse line-up of past speakers on the Regent campus including Al Gore, Bob Dole, Wesley Clark, Alan Dershowitz, and others, according to Regent's press release.

The commencement address on May 5 is to take place in front of nearly 900 graduates.