Its not what you believe. Its what you do that matters.

Working out of perhaps, the most conservative state in US, the Mormon state of Utah, you get a feeling that while America is a developed country, a lot of their people are not very developed in their thinking.

First, they are a very closed society in Utah, especially the Mormons. The city shuts down at night like in India, and unlike other places in the US. Their Sundays are dedicated for religious practice.

All that is OK but what gets you is their stubbornness that theirs is the oldest religion and everything else is a loose and derivative of their Church. In fact all of them think that if you don't follow their religion, you are going to hell, which shows their intolerance towards other faiths.

You don't find many Blacks here. Many hate Obama. They are also Republicans and think that George Bush was a good president.

Ofcourse, their thinking is because of propaganda. What they hear in the Church and the Fox News channel (which is blatantly biased towards Repubs) . And most news channels are inward looking. They don't have a world news segment.

Many of them, like Sarah Palin, think that Africa is a country and not a continent and, they cannot point out India on the world map. Also see this: http://images.google.com/images?q=the+world+according+to+america

I think a lot of their bigotry comes from their own insecurities. The Mormons, after all settled in in the mid western, unpopulated state of Utah only because they were persecuted in the other states.

How else can you instill pride in the faith if it is unpopular? By making such claims and thinking that those who are not Mormons are morons. :)