Visitors to The Atlantic’s website might be surprised to see a large picture of a Latter-day Saint temple at the top of the site’s home page. Members of the Church will be pleased to find that they can read the words of their prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, in an exclusive interview granted to writer McKay Coppins, a Latter-day Saint himself. The article is a personal essay in which Coppins addresses the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both the Church at large and in the life of just one of its 16 million members worldwide.

The Knoxville Tennessee Temple was announced in April 2022 by President Nelson, and plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 30,000 square feet.

This year’s celebration had a special focus on the 100-year anniversary of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ being preached in South America.

The calamity of September 11th, 2001 has cast a long shadow. Ten years later, many of us are still haunted by its terrible tragedy of lost lives and broken hearts. It is an episode of anguish that has become a defining moment in the history of the American nation and the world. This week, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, along with Tom Brokaw, will pay its own homage to the unforgettable events of September 11, 2001. There was, as many have noted, a remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy. People across the United States rediscovered the need for God and turned to Him for solace and understanding. Comfortable times were shattered. We felt the great unsteadiness of life and reached for the great steadiness of our Father in Heaven. And, as ever, we found it. Americans of all faiths came together in a remarkable way.

Voters are likely to know two things about Mitt Romney: that he’s rich and that he’s a Mormon. At the same time, more than one fifth of Americans tell pollsters they won’t vote for a Mormon for president. Yet if Americans understood Mormonism a little better, they might begin to think of Romney’s faith as a feature, not a bug, in the Romney candidacy. If anything, Romney’s religion may be the best offset to the isolation from ordinary people imposed by his wealth. It was Romney’s faith that sent him knocking on doors as a missionary—even as his governor father campaigned for the presidency of the United States. It was Romney’s position as a Mormon lay leader that had him sitting at kitchen tables doing family budgets during weekends away from Bain Capital. It was Romney’s faith that led him and his sons to do chores together at home while his colleagues in the firm were buying themselves ostentatious toys.

"Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division," Donald Trump said during his presidential victory speech. "To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It is time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be President for all of Americans, and this is so important to me."

MR says: It turns out three Utah cities rank high for having the most babies in the country, and their high population of Mormon families plays a big role in that ranking.

In June 1979, a coalition of conservative religious leaders led by a Jewish Howard Phillips, Catholic Paul Weyrich, and evangelical televangelist Jerry Falwell banded together to wage a political "holy war" against the liberal establishment. They called their organization the "Moral Majority" to signify the large number of social conservatives they believed were being ignored across American culture. Forming a political action committee, the organization registered 4 million voters in 1980 and purchased $10 million in radio and television ads questioning President Carter's patriotism and Christianity. Its message struck a chord with a large swath of Americans, and their efforts are credited with helping to elect Ronald Reagan. More importantly, the birth of the coalition began of a period of political dominance for the religious conservatives that would span at least three decades.

When asked how Joe Lieberman's Jewish faith would affect his campaign, a U.S. senator from Louisiana said, "I don't think American voters care where a man goes to church on Sunday." The senator had forgot that Lieberman, a practicing Jew, worships at a synagogue, not a church, on Saturday, not Sunday. The comment was an example of an ignorance about religious minorities that can sometimes lead to religious bigotry at the polls. Mitt Romney's candidacy may be a sign things are changing.

In the mid-1800s, newly converted families from across the United States and Europe gathered in the growing Mormon town of Nauvoo, Ill., to help their prophet, Joseph Smith, build a New Jerusalem. Soon driven out by anti-Mormon neighbors who killed Mr. Smith and his brother Hyrum, they trekked westward by foot and on horseback, chased by Indians, cholera and even United States troops before settling together safely in Utah.