How Americans Feel About Religious Groups: The Jews Rated the Highest

[RR1997]

Link to article

The question asked and the results:


Religious Groups' Ratings of Each Other:


View of Religious Groups By Race:

View of Religious Groups By Age:

View of Religions Groups By Political Party:

[IceSpear]

Atheism actually seems surprisingly high.

[DC Al Fine]

Kind of surprised that Mormonism is viewed more negatively than Evangelicalism by Democrats. Would've figured they'd be about the same, especially with Romney's recent run.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Wow, the Islamophobia is strong 13 years later.

[pbrower2a]

Judaism does not proselytize. It is no obvious threat to the religious beliefs of anyone else.

[RR1997]

Judaism does not proselytize. It is no obvious threat to the religious beliefs of anyone else.

Hinduism and Buddhism do not proselytize either, so I don't think that is why the Jews are the highest rated religious group. I think it's because of the pro-Israel views of most Americans.

[Goldwater]

Glad to see that my "religious" group isn't the  lowest.

[ElectionsGuy]

There's so much wrong with the chart, but it does seem like atheists and evangelical Christians are at a war with each other. Not surprising that Buddhist, Hindus, and Muslims (especially) are at the bottom, as those religions are foreign to America or are stereotyped based on violence/terrorism (Islam). And atheists are near bottom for obvious reasons. Mormon negativity is surprising, even among other Christians. Lastly, I think its hilarious that Jews have a higher opinion of atheists than evangelical Christians, as many evangelical leaders always talk about "judeo-christian" values.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Kind of surprised that Mormonism is viewed more negatively than Evangelicalism by Democrats. Would've figured they'd be about the same, especially with Romney's recent run.

Presumably because of the fairly decent amount of Evangelical Democrats (particularly African-Americans).

[AggregateDemand]

What part of the US is having problems with Buddhists and Hindus?

[RI]

Here's Atlas Forum's feelings (or at least the religion subforum's):

Catholic, 71
Mainline, 64
Agnostic, 61
Atheist, 50
Jewish, 48
Buddhist, 42
Evangelical, 38
Hindu, 37
Antitheist, 24
Mormon, 22
Islam, 20

[RR1997]

Here's Atlas Forum's feelings (or at least the religion subforum's):

Catholic, 71
Mainline, 64
Agnostic, 61
Atheist, 50
Jewish, 48
Buddhist, 42
Evangelical, 38
Hindu, 37
Antitheist, 24
Mormon, 22
Islam, 20

Too be fair, that poll had really low turnout, so this is not accurate. Atlas posters aren't really this intolerant.

[memphis]

Nobody else finds the question extremely unsettling? Judging a religion is in one thing. I certainly do it all the time. This is asking how people feel about groups of people. The Jews? How do you feel about the Jews? And those people o er there? How do you find them? That's creepy as hell. May as well ask how people feel about the Coloreds and the Chinamen.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Thus because Jewish people don't force their religion onto others.

[Indy Texas]

Judaism does not proselytize. It is no obvious threat to the religious beliefs of anyone else.

Hinduism and Buddhism do not proselytize either, so I don't think that is why the Jews are the highest rated religious group. I think it's because of the pro-Israel views of most Americans.

I love that Evangelical Protestants apparently love Jewish people leaps and bounds more than Jews like Evangelical Protestants. That looks to be the most lopsided pairing in that table.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Yet when looking at the rate of religiously-motivated hate crimes in this country, Jewish victims make up about 62% overall. I suppose what we can take away from this is that the number of people who hate Jews has shrunk drastically, but those who still hate Jews REALLY hate Jews, enough to actually do something about their hate.

I also wonder how many anti-Muslim bias crimes were labeled under race rather than religion.

[DC Al Fine]

Judaism does not proselytize. It is no obvious threat to the religious beliefs of anyone else.

Hinduism and Buddhism do not proselytize either, so I don't think that is why the Jews are the highest rated religious group. I think it's because of the pro-Israel views of most Americans.

I love that Evangelical Protestants apparently love Jewish people leaps and bounds more than Jews like Evangelical Protestants. That looks to be the most lopsided pairing in that table.

Yeah, never quite got the Israel love that's so popular in my neck of the religious woods. Must be all the premillenialism.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Judaism does not proselytize. It is no obvious threat to the religious beliefs of anyone else.

Hinduism and Buddhism do not proselytize either, so I don't think that is why the Jews are the highest rated religious group. I think it's because of the pro-Israel views of most Americans.

I love that Evangelical Protestants apparently love Jewish people leaps and bounds more than Jews like Evangelical Protestants. That looks to be the most lopsided pairing in that table.

Yeah, never quite got the Israel love that's so popular in my neck of the religious woods. Must be all the premillenialism.

I liked Israel before I was a premillennialist.

[Keystone Phil]

Nobody else finds the question extremely unsettling? Judging a religion is in one thing. I certainly do it all the time. This is asking how people feel about groups of people. The Jews? How do you feel about the Jews? And those people o er there? How do you find them? That's creepy as hell. May as well ask how people feel about the Coloreds and the Chinamen.

I'm sure you're just incensed when people ask, "How do you feel about the Evangelical Christians?"

[swl]

The last image really makes Republicans look like extremists.

[traininthedistance]

Kind of surprised that Mormonism is viewed more negatively than Evangelicalism by Democrats. Would've figured they'd be about the same, especially with Romney's recent run.

If anything, Romney's run should cause Dems to have lower views of Mormonism, because partisanship.  This is exactly what one would expect.  FWIW I actually have substantially higher views of Mormons than I do of Evangelicals, but I'm aware this is mildly atypical.

Judaism does not proselytize. It is no obvious threat to the religious beliefs of anyone else.

Hinduism and Buddhism do not proselytize either, so I don't think that is why the Jews are the highest rated religious group. I think it's because of the pro-Israel views of most Americans.

I love that Evangelical Protestants apparently love Jewish people leaps and bounds more than Jews like Evangelical Protestants. That looks to be the most lopsided pairing in that table.

And the Jews are entirely right to be skeptical.    Not just because of the whole creepy "Christian Zionism" thing, but because a lot of American Jews are functionally non-religious and/or hold values opposed to right-wing Christianity.

What part of the US is having problems with Buddhists and Hindus?

The part of the US that doesn't like brown people (or, possibly in the case of Buddhism, yuppie poseurs).

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Yet when looking at the rate of religiously-motivated hate crimes in this country, Jewish victims make up about 62% overall. I suppose what we can take away from this is that the number of people who hate Jews has shrunk drastically, but those who still hate Jews REALLY hate Jews, enough to actually do something about their hate.

I also wonder how many anti-Muslim bias crimes were labeled under race rather than religion.

Surely this is because Jews are the most common non-Christian religions in America, rather than Muslims or Sikhs who have little market penetration? I wonder what the stats are by percentage - what X % of Jews/Muslims etc. were targeted in hate crimes.

[Badger]

Yet when looking at the rate of religiously-motivated hate crimes in this country, Jewish victims make up about 62% overall. I suppose what we can take away from this is that the number of people who hate Jews has shrunk drastically, but those who still hate Jews REALLY hate Jews, enough to actually do something about their hate.

I also wonder how many anti-Muslim bias crimes were labeled under race rather than religion.

Surely this is because Jews are the most common non-Christian religions in America, rather than Muslims or Sikhs who have little market penetration? I wonder what the stats are by percentage - what X % of Jews/Muslims etc. were targeted in hate crimes.

On this I can only add the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported the number of hate crimes against Sikhs skyrocketed after 9/11; unsurprisingly, most could be traced back to the attackers' ignorant assumption the "towelheads" were Muslims.