The Religious World

we Live in
By: Kathryn Cunningham, Shelly Olenslager,
Moe Almasimanesh
Objective
This assignment was to serve as an opportunity to open our eyes to the religious
diversity in our community, nation and state.

We went into this project knowing that Utah has a few other religious churches but
weren’t sure how they felt being in a Mormon dominated state.

By the end of this project we plan to achieve a new understanding of Utah’s

religious landscape.
Community- Taylorsville
Christianity: 22.7%
Surprising?
Catholic:9%
For someone who
Protestant: 3.2% isn’t familiar with the area,
they might think the LDS
Orthodox: NA population would be larger.
Other: LDS 10.5%
Islam: .5%
Ordinary?
Hindu: .5% For such a small
Buddhism: .5% demographic I would say
that the majority being
Judaism: .1% christian is normal for
Utah.
Other: NA
Utah
Christianity: 73%
Surprising?
Catholic: 5%
Utah being such a
Protestant: 6% Mormon dominated state
this is not surprising.
Orthodox: <1%
Other: LDS 55%
Islam: <1% Ordinary?
The large percentage
Hindu: <1% of Christianity seemed
Buddhism: 1% ordinary.

Judaism: <1%
Other: unaffiliated 22%
California
Christianity: 63% Surprising?
Yes, because with the
Catholic:28%
large amount of
Protestant: 10% immigrants one would
think there would be more
Orthodox: 1% of a melting pot when it
Other: LDS 1% comes to religion.

Islam: 1%
Ordinary?
Hindu: 2%
California being apart
Buddhism: 2% of the United States one
would expect the majority
Judaism: 2% to be Christian.
Other: unaffiliated 27%
Nation
Christianity: 70.6% Surprising?
From what we’ve
Catholic:20.8%
discussed in class one
Protestant: 46.6% would think the Muslim
population would be bigger.
Orthodox: 0.5%
Other: LDS 1.6%
Ordinary?
Islam: 0.9%
Yes, because when
Hindu: 0.7% people first came here,
there was no separation
Buddhism: 0.7% between church and state;
Judaism: 1.9% in turn no separation for
the nation.
Other: unaffiliated 22.8%
Comparison

Utah vs Taylorsville:

Taylorsville lacks the

large percentage of
Christianity, yet still
contains the diversity of
mainy religions.
Comparison

Utah vs. California:

Both states contain

diverse religions, but
Utah has a higher
percentage of
Christianity.
Comparison

Utah vs. United States:

The diversity is present

when comparing Utah to
the nation but there is a
large gap when comparing
the LDS community;
UT 55% US 1.6%
Site visit 1- South Mountain Community Church

SMCC is a non-denominational Christian based church. The members were

extremely friendly and welcoming. The beginning of the service was very up beat
with music and singing. The service was given by one individual that spoke in
depth about one particular section from the bible. It was very member involved,
you were given pamphlets to fill out and follow along with the pastor. The end of
the service was a little odd, as it was about recruitment and trying to bring in new
members. I can only guess this was done because the location is very new to the
neighborhood. My group discussed the probability of revisiting this church and
all agreed we would.

-PHOTO CREDIT
SMCC
Site visit 2- Urgyen Samten Ling
Urgyen Samten is a Buddhist church located downtown. The members were very
understanding of a bunch of outsiders coming to take part in the service. It was
nice to go with the World Religions Class so they knew to expect outsiders. We
didn’t know anything about the Buddhist religion before going in, so it was
interesting to see how they gave the service. The llama guided the service and we
chanted prayers from their prayer book. We found the service different from the
Christian one in a good and refreshing way, the llama told us the history of the
building and how it has been many things before it was their temple. When
discussing with the group, we found the service really interesting and would love
to learn more about this religion and would probably go again.

-Photo credit Urgyen

Samten Ling
Conclusion
We found the difference in the churches really interesting, both were really welcoming to
newcomers this tells us that they are interested in recruitment. This was very prominent at the
end of SMCCs’ service as the Pastor talked about getting more involved in the church and how
they want to get to know their new comer.

The people that attended these churches were about of the same age, race and demographic.
From what we could tell by looking at them you had both young and old white middle class
attendees. Difference is that SMCC you can wear anything like jeans and a T-shirt or a dress. At
Urgyen Samten it seemed like they didn’t mind what you wore as long as it was appropriate so
no provocative logos of alcohol or guns and some of the members wore cloth wraps around
their bodies. We’re not sure the significance it held and didn’t ask.

The LDS religion dominates the state of Utah, having one-third of the total US Mormon
population, Utah still welcomes other religions to come and be apart of their community.
Work Cited
Bestplace.net, www.bestplace.net/religion/city/utah/taylorsville.

Omondi, Sharon. “Mormon Population By State.” WorldAtlas, 6 Sept. 2017,

www.worldatlas.com/articles/mormon-population-by-state.html.

“Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics.” Pew Research Center's
Religion & Public Life Project, 11 May 2015, www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/.

“Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics.” Pew Research Center's
Religion & Public Life Project, 11 May 2015,
www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/state/utah/.