Since America’s founding, Christianity has been a “load-bearing wall” of democracy, but in recent decades it has given up that role — and that, argues writer and scholar Jonathan Rauch, has led to the country’s current crisis.

In his latest book, “Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain With Democracy,” the self-described gay, Jewish atheist critiques secular Americans who think Christianity should be abandoned and Christian Americans who blame secular culture for their grievances. He shows why the two must work together — and points to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an example of how to do it.

On this week’s show, Rauch, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, discusses why he believes top Latter-day Saint leaders, including senior apostle Dallin H. Oaks, have landed on a prescription for compromising and healing a polarized nation’s ills.