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If Mormons in Utah had a lower bankruptcy rate than non-Mormons in Utah, why does the article give credence to the "various commentators" who blame Mormon culture? [TMQ]

That's nearly double the national rate and not far from No. 4 Florida's rate of 1 in 187. [The article]

That's because 60% of the state claim to be MORMON. Do you think the OTHER 40% are SO bad that THEY would drag the state to the #2 spot? [Elsie]

Exactly.

I was trying to think of a sports analogy last night since sports are so statistical. So I came up with with A BASKETBALL TEAM ILLUSTRATION:

It's almost like a 10-member BYU basketball team that plays all 10 equally--6 of the players of whom are Mormon & 4 who are not...
...and say if BYU was one of the top teams in the nation re: avg # of fouls-per-game...
...in fact, to the point where BYU was almost DOUBLE the foul avg vs. most other teams in nation...
...now were an article to mention this illustrative anecdote about "BYU" -- wondering aloud why conservative Mormons were heavily contributing to one of the worst foul rates -- while still rightly pointing out that the 4 non-Mormons on the team have a "slightly higher" foul avg than the 6 Mormons...
...it'd be like TMQ rushing in to blame the team's obvious spread-out foul problems on just 4 non-Mormons ("to blame Mormons for something non-Mormons are doing is non sequitur")...
...and to flesh out that analogy with #s...the statistical breakdown would look like this: Say the avg college basketball team commits 20 fouls in a game...
...and BYU 38 (almost twice the avg)...
...even if the 4 non-Mormons averaged 4 fouls-per-game to account for 16 of those 38 fouls, that's still leaves 22 fouls by the other 6 players -- a 3.7 average...
...yes, that 3.7 average is "slightly" better than the 4.0...
...but guess who's committing the bulk of the fouls?
And, in fact, if you look at that analogy closely, 22 fouls by 6 PLAYERS STILL outranks the national average of 20 by ENTIRE TEAMS!
...Yet, TMQ somehow felt the compulsion to ding the equivalency of the 4 guys with 4.0 average fouls
-- all the while defending...
...(with his statement "If the worst offenders are non-Mormon, why again is this the Mormons' fault?")...
...the guys who even if their non-Mormon teammates were suspended, they'd still muster up MORE fouls than the avg. ENTIRE TEAM among themselves!!!

(Beware of folks who rush in with fancy Latin terms claiming "Hey, it doesn't follow" when in fact the reality is "They just don't follow statistical realities.")