Pew Studies LDS are Non-judgmental

[mikbone]

From an article @ ldsliving.com

Latter-Day Saints like all religions better than we like atheists.  

Everyone dislikes / hates us except catholics.

Atheists are the most hateful.  Curiously they do like Jews though.  

Edited April 17, 2023 by mikbone

[Vort]

What? Being a Latter-day Saint isn't a ticket to widespread popularity and acceptance? How come no one ever told me?

[NeuroTypical]

1. The 2nd great commandment really takes a pounding with an awful lot of people who should know better.  Shame on all the measured types of mainstream Christianity except us.

2. Glad to see everyone liking Jews.  Except for, well:

 

3. I'd really be interested in the missing data - namely, what do groups think of themselves?  Do Catholics like other Catholics?  Do Atheists like other Atheists?  Do LDS like other LDS?

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, mikbone said:

Everyone dislikes / hates us except catholics.

As a former Catholic, I highly advise you to go into a Knights of Columbus hall and inform them you are a believing LDS. Then return and report to us how Catholics treat and think of LDS. 

[Vort]

Just now, LDSGator said:

As a former Catholic, I highly advise you to go into a Knights of Columbus hall and inform them you are a believing LDS. Then return and report to us how Catholics treat and think of LDS. 

Since at least my missionary service in Italy, I have had a broadly positive opinion of Roman Catholics. I hope not to have my rose-colored glasses shattered too violently.

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, NeuroTypical said:

Do Catholics like other Catholics? 

No, and for the same reason some LDS dislike other LDS. Pre V2 Catholics look down their nose at those who accept the changes of Vatican II. Catholic gals who veil look down on those who don’t. Catholics who take communion on the tongue look down on those who don’t. 99% of the time it’s the “Look how Holy and obedient I am compared to you. I’m a REAL catholic and you are not.” 
 

I’m positive every church has that. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by LDSGator

[LDSGator]

4 minutes ago, Vort said:

Since at least my missionary service in Italy, I have had a broadly positive opinion of Roman Catholics. I hope not to have my rose-colored glasses shattered too violently.

Great. As someone who raised Catholic, went to Catholic schools, daily mass for several years,  was an altar boy, my experience is vastly different. Catholics hate Protestant “heretics” and even other Catholics who take communion on the hand and not on the tongue. So yes, I call “rubbish” on this study. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by LDSGator

[LDSGator]

To be clear, not every Catholic feels the way I described. And my experience was in a very small, insular and conservative upbringing. My parents grudgingly accepted the changes in Vatican II and they were considered the “liberals” in their circle. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by LDSGator

[clbent04]

Latter-day Saints have a more favorable view of Catholics (+53) than mainline Protestants (+51)? What's all that talk of the Catholic church being considered the Great and Abominable Church in the scriptures? Is that just a popularized, baseless rumor in the Church? I thought that was popular opinion since I heard it multiple times in one way or another over the years.

[mikbone]

18 minutes ago, clbent04 said:

Latter-day Saints have a more favorable view of Catholics (+53) than mainline Protestants (+51)? What's all that talk of the Catholic church being considered the Great and Abominable Church in the scriptures? Is that just a popularized, baseless rumor in the Church? I thought that was popular opinion since I heard it multiple times in one way or another over the years.

Personal opinion of Bruce R McConkie back in Mormon Doctrine first edition.

Since retracted.

Also

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_and_abominable_church

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by mikbone

[clbent04]

54 minutes ago, mikbone said:

Personal opinion of Bruce R McConkie back in Mormon Doctrine first edition.

Since retracted.

Also

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_and_abominable_church

@LDSGator would you say general LDS views of the Catholic church are unfair? No comment is fine too. I know it's had its share of challenges just like many other churches, but I think it's put more good into the world than anything negative. General worldwide perception of the Catholic church seems favorable as it's one of the largest if not the largest religious organization in the world. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by clbent04

[LDSGator]

4 minutes ago, clbent04 said:

would you say the general LDS views of the Catholic church is unfair?

Generally? No, but LDS are far more tolerant of other faiths then other faiths are of the Latter Day Saints. That’s a hill I will die on.

Edited April 17, 2023 by LDSGator

[MarginOfError]

11 hours ago, LDSGator said:

As a former Catholic, I highly advise you to go into a Knights of Columbus hall and inform them you are a believing LDS. Then return and report to us how Catholics treat and think of LDS. 

Your mileage may vary. I have the master key to the local Catholic parish. And I'm quasi in charge of tending the fire to kick off their Easter vigil. 

[Just_A_Guy]

15 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

3. I'd really be interested in the missing data - namely, what do groups think of themselves?  Do Catholics like other Catholics?  Do Atheists like other Atheists?  Do LDS like other LDS?

I think in the wake of the Holocaust, most Americans understand that they aren’t supposed to dislike Jews.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t many who dislike them anyways; but I dare say there are relatively few who would admit to it.  And just as many anti-Mormons claim that they like Mormons fine but disagree with the church’s doctrine or political or commercial activities; there are probably a lot of folks who would claim that their antipathy is aimed at Zionism rather than Jews or Judaism per se.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Just_A_Guy

[Just_A_Guy]

14 hours ago, clbent04 said:

Latter-day Saints have a more favorable view of Catholics (+53) than mainline Protestants (+51)? What's all that talk of the Catholic church being considered the Great and Abominable Church in the scriptures? Is that just a popularized, baseless rumor in the Church? I thought that was popular opinion since I heard it multiple times in one way or another over the years.

For whatever reason [to the extent that it’s possible to generalize about such things] Church members, including Elder McConkie himself, have seemed to largely be able to articulate and maintain their theological disagreements with the Catholic Church without those disagreements descending into personal animus towards individual Catholics.

Do I understand why Nephi’s and Moroni’s statements about a materialistic church in the last days that had only a warped shell of the doctrine of Christ and that loved riches more than people, could have application to (and perhaps even have been inspired by visions of) grand Catholic Church?  Sure.  Do I understand that some Catholics have done horrifying things in the name of their religion, and that even a lot of cardinals and popes were absolute stinkers?  Yep.  Do I see why Elder McConkie and other LDS leaders were so deeply frustrated at what the primitive church could have had and could have been, but which it lost/forfeited in favor of the Catholicism (and, in the east, Orthodoxy) that ultimately came to prevail in Europe and eventually throughout the world?  Also, yes.

Then again:  I’m currently posting from a train in Florence, Italy; and am gaining an increasing appreciation for the Catholic Church.  Problematic though they were—the Roman Empire was almost-pure evil; and the Catholics (or their institutional forbears) ended Rome’s most heinous practices while preserving (to the extent economically, socially, and politically possible) much of its beauty and instilling hope, meaning, comfort, and a smattering of scriptural knowledge into the lives of their largely-illiterate, desperately poor members.

Churches build both physical and spiritual monuments.  The spiritual monuments—the ones built in the life of each believer—pass away from our mortal view with each generation; the physical monuments can last for centuries or millennia and—if we are careless—eclipse the fact that the spiritual monuments ever existed at all.  Elder McConkie lived and served at a time when the LDS Church was undeniably poor and the number of our temples could be counted on two hands and two feet (with perhaps a dozen of those perhaps worthy of being considered anything like “monumental”).  But with over three hundred multi-million dollar temples on the drawing board or bearing our church’s name in our day, it’s probably healthy to make sure we are careful to keep the material aspects of our church solidly within their spiritual contexts.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Just_A_Guy

[Traveler]

15 hours ago, clbent04 said:

Latter-day Saints have a more favorable view of Catholics (+53) than mainline Protestants (+51)? What's all that talk of the Catholic church being considered the Great and Abominable Church in the scriptures? Is that just a popularized, baseless rumor in the Church? I thought that was popular opinion since I heard it multiple times in one way or another over the years.

I believe sometimes this depends on two factors – How much research a person has done and personal experiences one has with other churches.   The Catholic church was the only religious organization that gave aid and assistance to the LDS peoples attempting to leave Nauvoo and settle in the West.  In contrast there were several Poststent churches that did much to add to the suffering during this most desperate hour.

From my personal experiences, in my travels, I have found Muslims and Buddhists the most friendly towards Latter-day Saints followed by Hindus.  The Christian sect most friendly seemed to be the Nestorian Christians followed by the Eastern Orthodox and then Catholics.  Generally, my experience, is that Protestants are the most unfriendly.

Historically, it seems that the Catholics have treated non-Catholics poorer than just about everybody else in history – on occasions committing genocide.  Early Islam seemed to try to get along.  So it seems that religions, in general, seem to evolve over time and circumstance. 

I speculate that moving forward in these last-days that for any religion pretending any depth in divine worship, to survive there will be, of necessity, a great deal of evolution that must take place.  I speculate that world society is moving towards two camps – that according to prophesy – will contend against each other in a final conflict of devastating war.  I speculate that such conflict is not far off.

 

The Traveler

[LDSGator]

5 hours ago, MarginOfError said:

Your mileage may vary. I have the master key to the local Catholic parish. And I'm quasi in charge of tending the fire to kick off their Easter vigil. 

Very glad your experience is different!