Who thinks you should avoid religion and politics in civil discussions? Well, for those who enjoy these topics, and their confluence, you might get a kick out of this interactive Religious Landscape study from last year, conducted by the Pew Center:
http://religions.pewforum.org/
It profiles different religious denominations and compares them to each other in terms of political attitudes as well as worship and spirituality. In politics, the Mormons jump out from the data. They are, simply put, FAR more conservative than any other religious group. In terms of worship, the Jehovah Witnesses lead out in most categories as the extremists--the meet together the most often, prey the most, believe in God, etc., but Mormons are not far behind, followed closely by evangelicals and historical black churches. Mainstream christian churches do not appear to have nearly the intensity of worship or personal internalization of faith.
While we're on this subject, let me share with you the result I found in another study at the University of North Carolina. They polled youth on about thier church attendance, worship frequency, prayer, etc. and found that Mormons again stand out as extremists. Generally speaking, Mormon youth are twice as likely to participate in scripture study, read a spiritual book outside of the scriptures, practice a day of rest, share thier faith, and pray alone. They are also far less likely to express doubts in thier faith, and are more likely to share the faith of thier parents. Mormon youth are the most likely to participate in conferences, service projects, attend Sunday School more than once a week, and cite the most adult supporters from church who they feel they can trust and rely upon. Source: Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 20005), ch. 2, passim. In fairness to the Jehovah Witnesses, they were not isolated in this study so they may even be more extreme (as the Pew survey suggests).
