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Utah is no longer majority Mormon, new research says
ABC 4 ^ | December 29, 2023 | Jonathon Sharp

Posted on 01/01/2024 7:25:54 PM PST by Morgana

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Since Utah became a state in the late 1800s, most of its residents have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But according to a new study, Utah isn’t majority Mormon anymore.

A paper published this month in the Journal of Religion and Demography estimates that the percentage of Utahns who identify as members of the LDS church, otherwise known as Mormons, is about 42%.

That’s markedly lower than previous media reports citing the church’s numbers, which put the percentage of Mormons in Utah at around 60% as recently as 2020.

“We’re not trying to say that the LDS church is wrong, it’s just we’re using very different approaches to get to gather this information,” said Ryan T. Cragun, lead author on the study, who teaches sociology at the University of Tampa. The method

To get their numbers, Cragun and his fellow researchers contracted a survey of roughly 1,900 Utahns, with quotas for age, sex and ethnicity aligning with official census data for Utah. This method is called “quota sampling.”

Michael Wood, assistant professor of sociology at Brigham Young University, who was not connected to the study, said quota sampling is commonly used in the field with accepted limitations, which he noted that Cragun and his co-authors acknowledged.

“It is a provocative study with compelling arguments,” Wood told ABC4 in an email, adding that “further research with a more robust sampling method is needed to confirm the findings.”

In the survey, which was conducted in the summer of 2022, the nearly 2,000 participants were asked a variety of questions, and among them was how they identified on religious grounds.

(Excerpt) Read more at abc4.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Other Christian
KEYWORDS: lds; mormon; utah
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To: Morgana

i had to find the actual study here:

https://www.ryantcragun.com/mormons-are-no-longer-a-majority-in-utah-causes-consequences-and-implications-for-the-sociology-of-religion/

to see what the biggest cause is and it is , like every other state rjection of religion by youth , biggest group is “no religion” secularization of former mormon in utah-biggest cause


21 posted on 01/01/2024 8:56:25 PM PST by TECTopcat
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To: Wpin
That’s truly a shame. No finer and devout people in America.

After a fine start, Mormonism hit a hall in America about 25 years ago. Great religions are supposed to expand, not contract.

22 posted on 01/01/2024 9:19:27 PM PST by Right_Wing_Madman
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Another way they tried to defeat Trump, putting a Mormon on the ballot.


23 posted on 01/01/2024 9:44:35 PM PST by TakebackGOP
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To: 11th_VA

Mormons are overwhelmingly white. Deceived or not (they are) they are simply a larger Vermont demographically so…. Less crime.


24 posted on 01/01/2024 9:45:37 PM PST by freedomjusticeruleoflaw (Strange that a man with his wealth would have to resort to prostitution.)
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To: ansel12

Most likely Reid would be a Missionary called from Spirit Paradise to preach the gospel to the people in Spirit Prison who never had the chance in mortal life to learn about the gospel restored to Joseph Smith (and then updated by Brigham Young, John Taylor, and others to Russell Nelson today, and others in the future) if their temple work is done for them by proxies in Mormon temples.

There are debates ongoing about whether or not Joseph Smith was really a true prophet of God. Some people think he pretended to be a prophet for a wide range of reasons. Some people think he was a true prophet for some or even all of his life from when he reported that he had prayed in a grove of trees in 1820 until he died in 1844. I wasn’t born until the 20th century so I’m not a firsthand witness.

And among those who think he may have been a true prophet for at least part of his life there’s the debate over whether other men (maybe some women too) were true prophets of God after him. For example, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith, John Woolley, Spencer Woolley Kimball, Warren Jeffs, Russell Nelson, Kody Brown, and others. I don’t know of anyone who thinks that all of the men I just mentioned were true prophets of God. But many people do think that many of them were true prophets of God. I’ve never met any of them and only the last 3 are still alive.


25 posted on 01/01/2024 11:48:07 PM PST by Degaston
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To: Morgana

Does that mean they might actually NOT keep Pierre Delecto in office for the rest of his life?


26 posted on 01/02/2024 2:38:45 AM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell>)
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To: Morgana

It’s a totally made-up kook religion, but they are mostly good, God-fearing people.

Mormon girls gone wild!


27 posted on 01/02/2024 4:53:24 AM PST by Flavious_Maximus (Tony Fauci will be put on death row and die of COVID!)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman
After a fine start, Mormonism hit a hall in America about 25 years ago. Great religions are supposed to expand, not contract.

Coincides almost exactly with (a) the web becoming ubiquitous, making it easy to access all of the information which destroys the LDS origin narrative, and (b) the development of DNA testing which proves, beyond reasonable doubt, that American Indians came from north central and northeastern Asia, not the Middle East.

Prove that Joseph Smith was not any kind of prophet and had no special knowledge of ancient languages (cf "Kinderhook plates," "Joseph Smith papyri," and "Book of Abraham"), and prove that the BoM is pure fiction, not history, and the case for the LDS church collapses.

28 posted on 01/02/2024 5:29:58 AM PST by Campion (Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - Little Flower)
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To: NWFree

29 posted on 01/02/2024 5:45:03 AM PST by Tom Tetroxide
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To: Degaston

Smith was the usual cult leader, he wanted wealth, sex, and power, and he got them all.


30 posted on 01/02/2024 5:59:25 AM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Morgana

Majority Californian?


31 posted on 01/02/2024 7:30:45 AM PST by dljordan
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To: Morgana

Californication of Utah.


32 posted on 01/02/2024 9:28:48 AM PST by Buckeye Battle Cry (Progressivism is socialism. Venezuela is how it ends.)
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To: Morgana

I have had precious friends who were devoted Mormons. I loved them but I cannot help remembering that they believe that Joseph Smith encountered an angel named Moroni in a cave and that Mormonism is based on ridiculous drivel and hocus pocus. They believe after death that they will be gods(males) and women will continue to have babies. Joseph Smith taught that Jesus Christ is “God the Second, the Redeemer and not God.” Mormons are not Christians even though they use some of the same vocabulary.


33 posted on 01/02/2024 2:25:48 PM PST by scottiemom (As a former Texas public school teacher, I recommend home school)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

They have continually had annual growth in membership in the US...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membership_statistics_of_the_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_(United_States)


34 posted on 01/02/2024 8:31:13 PM PST by Wpin ("I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny...")
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To: 11th_VA

Walmart doesn’t have employees checking receipts where I live (not Utah) except when a customer wheels out a TV on a dolly or something larger. Most smaller town Walmarts in this part of the country don’t — no reason to. What gets me is when a customer voluntarily holds up a receipt without being asked. And Utah cities have plenty of crime.


35 posted on 01/02/2024 8:46:25 PM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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