John Colton's blog

An interesting recent USA Today opinion piece. They surveyed people's reactions about Mitt Romney, and found that those who (a) know a Mormon personally, or (b) know a lot about Mormonism (as proved via a quiz), are not affected by statements such as "Some people say Mormons are not Christians". But those who (c) *think* they know a lot about Mormonism but don't really (as proved via the quiz) were bothered most of all by claims about Mormons not being Christians.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/11/column-tolerance-we-have-a-ways-to-go-.html

Some were given a boilerplate biography [of Romney] that did not mention religion; others were told that he has been a local leader in his church; others were told he has been a leader in the Mormon church. Still others were told, "Some people say Mormons are not Christians." By comparing reactions to these various statements, we could see how each one affected a person's willingness to vote for Romney, and also how different kinds of people responded to the statements.

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When respondents were told about the claim that Mormons are not Christians, nearly one-third said they were less likely to vote for him.

Interestingly, the claim that Mormons are not Christians had virtually no effect on those people who reported a close personal relationship with a Mormon. This news, though, is presumably small consolation for Romney's supporters. There is little they can do between now and 2012 to encourage closer friendships between Mormons and their non-Mormon neighbors.

Our results do, however, indicate that there is something Romney's supporters can do to assuage concerns about his Mormonism. People who objectively know a lot about Mormons — that is, those who scored 100% on a short quiz on facts about Mormonism — were much less likely to be bothered by the claim that Mormons are not Christians. In contrast, respondents who claimed they knew a lot about Mormons, but who actually did not, were bothered most of all by claims about Mormonism.

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We take no position on whether Romney is right for the Republican Party or for the White House...We do take the position that the whole country will be better off if there is no "stained glass ceiling" in politics for members of any religion or no religion at all. A good way to break such a barrier is for all of us to really know the Latter-day Saints — as well as all the other kinds of "saints" among us.