(edited for excerpt).............................................Prothero was speaking on Friday at the 11th annual Mormon Studies Conference .-SNIP-Prothero said the traditional story of Mormonism is that it was reviled until it renounced plural marriage in the 1890s. After that, it was relatively smooth sailing to acceptance. "Today the Mormons are quintessentially American — more American than I am, perhaps, given my residence in the irredeemably liberal state of Massachusetts," Prothero said to laughter. "Mormons are seen through much of America — with the exception of Boston, Cambridge and San Francisco — as a model minority."He said that some even say that Mormonism...