The Atlantic

The Commons

Readers respond to our January/February 2021 issue.
Source: Katie Martin

The Most American Religion

Mormons spent 200 years assimilating to a certain national ideal—only to find their country in an identity crisis, McKay Coppins wrote in the January/February issue. What will the third century of the faith look like?


I’m a devout Episcopalian, but I spent many years dealing with an incomprehensible and not very subtle anti-Mormon bias. After I was named Mitt Romney’s chief of staff, in 2002, a church leader asked me how I could work for a heretic. And then there was so much anti-Mormonism on the presidential-campaign trail.

One of my earliest best friends was a Latter-day Saint, so Mormonism has never been a weird religion to me. Now, thanks to the Romneys and others, I love so much about the Church and how my LDS friends live their lives. I

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