Financial Times: The rise of a new generation of Mormons

Ben McAdams is neat, he's helpful, he's unfailingly polite. The 35-year-old is a family man, one of six siblings and a father of three. People warm quickly to him, and talk of his modesty and strong work ethic. He neither drinks nor smokes. And when we meet for breakfast in a sparsely decorated canteen in Salt Lake City, he is wearing a dark suit and a tie.

In other words, McAdams is what the world expects of Mormons.

In other ways, however, he is less typical. Until recently, he was a fast-rising star at Davis Polk, a prestigious New York law firm — a job he won straight from Columbia University's law school. He then worked for both Bill and Hillary Clinton, before becoming, at 35, Utah's youngest state senator. His is the most conservative state in the U.S., and yet he's a moderate Democrat who won his district — and his reputation — by helping to broker a deal over gay rights.

Put simply, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS for short, has an image problem; and yet, tellingly, McAdams doesn't. And he's part of a much bigger crowd.

Much of the U.S. still sees Mormons as weirdly strait-laced at best. Yet elite institutions are embracing them. What does that fact say about the world's youngest major religion — and about success in modern America?

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