McKay Coppins

Yeah, the church was founded by Joseph Smith, who is this kind of young, charismatic guy in upstate New York who claimed to have a vision from God and Jesus Christ.

Almost from the very beginning,

kind of fledgling religious movement that became known as the Mormons was subjected to a constant barrage of state sanctioned persecution.

You know, the early Mormons actually were constantly fleeing from one state to another, trying to find a place where they could

kind of set up shop and worship, and they were always driven out of wherever they had landed.

So over the course of several years in the early 19th century, they were driven from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois.

In Missouri, actually, the governor issued what was called an extermination order.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

demanded that Mormons be removed from the state or killed, and actually a militia ended up descending on a Mormon settlement and attacking them.

And so, you know, really the early decades of Mormonism was forged in kind of opposition to

the American government, which saw them as a threat.

And eventually Mormons were actually driven out of the country entirely into the desert where they settled in what is now Utah, but was at the time a Mexican territory.

And so that is part of the DNA of Mormonism that

This church that saw itself as kind of a beacon of the best of what America had to offer was roundly and often violently rejected by America itself.

Well, it is, I think, one of the largest global religions that was founded in America.

Most of the large churches or even small religious movements that are growing were founded outside of the United States.

But also, theologically, the church has always been kind of wrapped up in the American project.

From early on, church leaders taught that America was a promised land that had been prepared –

to be the place where God could restore his church to the earth.