Judaism is the most favorably viewed religion in the United States, according to a new Pew Research Center study, despite a rise in antisemitic incidents across the country.
Jews scored a net +28 positive rating in the analysis released Wednesday. The study also found Americans generally view Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants favorably but tend to view Muslims, atheists and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, negatively.
Nonevangelicals also tend to view evangelical Christians more negatively than positively, the study disclosed, although evangelicals eked out a 2% net favorable rating when the opinions of “born-again” and evangelical poll responders were factored in. Without those believers, and without mainline Protestants, the evangelical cohort rates a -14 favorability score.
Based on a survey conducted Sept. 13-18 among 10,588 U.S. adults, the Pew analysis also found that people who know someone from a particular religious group are more likely to have positive views of that group and that Americans tend to view their own group positively.
The study also noted political differences in how respondents viewed religious groups.
Pew said the study’s methodology differs from that of three previous surveys of Americans’ views about religious groups. Studies in 2014, 2017 and 2019 used a “feeling thermometer” to gauge views on a 0-to-100 scale, the research center said. The new study asked respondents to rate groups “very favorable, somewhat favorable, neither favorable nor unfavorable, somewhat unfavorable, or very unfavorable.” Respondents also could say they “don’t know enough to say.”
The high net favorability rating for American Jews comes at a time when criminal and noncriminal acts of hate against Jews have increased. The FBI recently released data for 2021 that showed a 16% rise in antisemitic assaults against Jews, and single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes — which comprised a little more than half of all religious-based hate crimes — jumped 20% from 683 in 2020 to 817 in 2021.
A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League in New York City said the group is “heartened” to see Pew’s study of inter-group relationships, adding “we have evidence that suggests that those with prejudices, generally, hide behind ‘I don’t know’ responses, which, here, make up almost half of response groups for each of the religions in question (in the case of Jews -58%).”
They also said having positive feelings about Jews would not preclude a person from holding “dark beliefs about a Jewish cabal or global conspiracy.”
The ADL said the subject “require[s] more research and we look forward to collaborating with Pew moving forward.”
Atheists, Muslims, Mormons get low ratings
Also on the less-favored side are atheists at -4 points, Muslims at -5, and Mormons at -10. However, majorities of those surveyed — 55 points for atheists and 59 points each for Muslims and Mormons — say they are either neutral or “don’t know enough” to form an opinion on these groups.
A spokesperson for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said the group did not have an immediate comment on the Pew findings.
Stephen Carter, publications director for the Sunstone Education Foundation, whose publications often present a progressive view of Mormonism, said the perceived clannishness of church members may be a factor in the negative public perception.
“I think there’s a feeling that Mormons run on different programming from the rest of America,” he said via email. “This probably has something to do with the Book of Mormon, but it also has to do with the fact that Mormons tried to build their own nation that went against most of the social structures America ran on at the time.”
When asked about their own groups, Jews, Mormons, atheists and Catholics give overwhelmingly positive net ratings. Jewish self-approval comes in at +79 points, Latter-day Saints at +78, atheists at +70 and Catholics at +62.
Non-Jews gave their Jewish neighbors a +27 point favorable rating, Pew found. Non-Catholics were favorable by a +5 point rating. Non-Muslims rated Islamic followers unfavorable at -5 points while non-atheists gave that group a -9 unfavorable score.
Those who are not Mormons rated LDS Church members unfavorably by a -12 point majority.
Those who know Muslims have a more favorable view of those who follow Islam, giving the faith community a +4 favorability balance. Those who know Jews will favor the faith by +36 points, and those who know mainline Protestants score a 26-point favorability balance. Catholics net +6 when favorable versus unfavorable opinions of non-Catholics are tallied.
But atheists, evangelical Christians and Mormons still garner net unfavorable scores among those who know members of these groups. Atheists are at -2 points overal unfavorable; evangelicals at -11 points and Mormons at -12.
Disfavored groups say education, outreach needed
The more people know members of disfavored groups — and the more atheists, Muslims and evangelicals reach out to people outside their religious circles — the more likely favorability ratings will rise, thought leaders in those communities said.
“In my experience, when people know and meet their Muslim neighbors, they tend to like their Muslim neighbors, and their fears and concerns are very quickly dispelled,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “That’s why a key part of our mission and care is enhancing the public’s understanding of Islam. Our theory is that education is a very good vaccine against discrimination.”
Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, said younger Americans already have a more positive view of atheists than older Americans. The young adult cohort gave atheists a net favorability rating of +11, he said, versus -20 for evangelicals.
He said it was essential for atheists to see religious people as individuals, just as they would want to be seen.
“It’s important for us to hear everyone out and make sure that we’re treating people with dignity and respect meeting them where they are, and trying to find common ground wherever possible,” Mr. Fish said.
Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said the low ratings for that cohort are to be expected.
“Following Jesus is not a popularity contest, and there are times that being a Christian, in any form – Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox – will entail holding views that are different from or even opposed to aspects of culture,” he said via email. “However, it is also true that ‘being an evangelical’ should mean being the sort of people characterized by the good news of Jesus, being known as peacemakers, principled about our beliefs in Jesus as Savior, as well as our commitment to love like our Savior.”
And David Dockery, interim president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in a telephone interview that evangelicals “just need to make sure that the [negative] perceptions are not because of our own misrepresentation of the gospel in any way.” He said Christians should be “salt and light” in the culture.
The political affiliation of survey respondents also plays a role in how various groups are rated, Pew said.
Non-Protestant and nonevangelical Republicans and those who lean toward the GOP have more favorable views of evangelicals and Catholics. Democrats and those who lean Democratic have more negative views of evangelicals on balance, and also are as likely to view Catholics negatively as they are to view them positively.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, told The Times he was unsurprised by this finding.
He said it was “disconcerting … that Democrats hold a negative view of Catholics and evangelicals. It is no secret that the Democrats have long been home to secularists, many of whom have grown increasingly extreme in their politics.”
Both Democrats (net 18 points) and Republicans (net 5 points) hold negative views of Mormons, but 38% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats hold favorable views of Jews.
The Pew report did not list the churches it categorized as “mainline Protestant,” but scholars generally say it is a group that includes the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Churches, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the United Church of Christ.
The District-based research group, which regularly studies religious trends and attitudes, canvassed 10,588 U.S. adults online between Sept. 13-18, 2022. Pew said its goal was “study tolerance, diversity and pluralism in American society.”
Because the survey included responses from those who identified as members of the religious categories listed in the poll, some groups polled higher than if members were excluded, Patricia Tevington, a Pew research associate, said.
“In general, religious groups tend to view themselves pretty favorably,” she said in an interview. “So larger groups are going to pull [their] average up across the country. When we exclude people that say that they are Protestant and born again or evangelical Protestant, that balance goes to the negative.”
Ms. Tevington said it was interesting “that members of the LDS Church generally have pretty favorable views of other religious groups. They’re the only religious group in our survey that does not rate any of the other religious groups negatively on balance.”
Pew said the margin of sampling error for the full group of respondents is +/- 1.5 percentage points. More details on the survey are online at https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/03/15/americans-feel-more-positive-than-negative-about-jews-mainline-protestants-catholics/.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.