McKay Coppins: Why do they hate us? Try asking

If

there's one thing a BYU religion professor likes to talk about, I

suppose it's the gospel. But if there are TWO things a BYU religion

professor likes to talk about, you've got to add his son's mission to

the list.

The

instructor for my religion class this week told us about an e-mail he

recently received from his son, who just arrived in the Missouri St.

Louis Mission. He was treated to some good ole' fashioned Southern

hospitality as soon as he got on the airplane when a man sitting near

him asked the flight attendant if he could change seats.

He had been eyeing the missionaries' name tags.

When

they landed in St. Louis, the new elders had barely met their mission

president when a complete stranger approached the group and began

berating them for their faith.

Now,

I am not relating these stories in an effort to paint the LDS Church or

its missionaries as poor, persecuted Saints in an increasingly cruel

world. On the contrary, I have consistently used this column to condemn

the persecution complex so many

of our members seem to have. (To his credit, this was not the point of

my professor's lecture either.)

Instead,

when I heard these stories in class, I started to wonder about what

made these people dislike the church so much. After all, the vast

majority of people in the world do not act or form strong opinions