I'm not sure how I'm supposed to share what I've learned through the blog, but one way I thought of for this week is to share some of my thoughts on an article I found completely by chance called "'Mormons in America' Pew survey explores beliefs, attitudes of LDS Church members". I found the article at this website: http://desne.ws/AfmdnI. It is about a study that was done by Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life .
I thought this article was interesting to read after learning about research studies. It talks about creating a survey using terminology that would be mutually understood by all those that took it. I thought it was interesting because in class and in the articles about research it mention terminology being one of the trials in research. One thing I thought made this study very strong is that it wasn't done by the church, but they did get the advice of members as they were putting the study together. Something I also thought it was really interesting that they showed the results about what they learned about American "Mormons" and compared it to what they learned about what other people believe about Mormons. Some of those things were in line, but when it came to whether or not we were christian there was a huge difference of opinion. There were several results from the survey that fit the stereotypes often associated with Mormons, like where most of them live. They surveyed more than a thousand members that were found when they had done previous studies. They had questions that made sure the participants were members of the church and not groups that are not call themselves Mormons but are not affiliated with the church. I liked that they admitted that the study could have done a better job at representing the marginal members, it admitted that there is a lot they could still learn in further studies. Another thing I liked about the study, and this is more of a personal note, I liked that it reflected many positive things about the church.
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