Apostle vacancies could mean shift in LDS leadership

Analysis

For the first time in more than a century, there are three openings in the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

With the death of Elder Richard G. Scott on Tuesday, the second-highest governing body of the worldwide church now has only 75 percent of its usual membership. There is a good chance The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will remedy this in one week during its 185th Semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City.

While there have been no announcements about replacing members of the quorum and there is no requirement for the church to do so at the weekend conference Oct. 3-4, in recent years the church has followed up the death of an apostle by introducing a replacement at the following conference, whether in April or October.

If the church does fill all three positions on Oct. 3 or 4 it will come with changes for the 15 million-member faith. The changes may only be small, but at the very least, there will be three new voices among the church’s top 15 leaders.

President Thomas S. Monson leads the church with his two counselors, President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, in the highest governing body, the First Presidency. Just below the presidency is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, whose members serve under the direction of the First Presidency. All 15 men hold the office of apostle and are considered “prophets, seers and revelators” by faithful Latter-day Saints.

The primary responsibility of these 15 men is to serve as special witnesses of Jesus Christ, which they do through their twice yearly General Conference addresses as well as frequent international trips to LDS congregations throughout the world. They also bear administrative responsibilities and oversee the church’s worldwide growth.

Because the call to serve as an apostle is a lifetime assignment, those who attain the office typically help define the direction of the church for decades. While many of those currently serving became apostles in their 50s or 60s, Monson was only 36, which means he has been among the church’s top leaders for more than five decades.

While there are no age requirements for the office of apostle, many church observers expect the new apostles to also be in their 50s or 60s — near retirement age but young enough to devote significant time to traveling the world and leading the affairs of the church.

Dave Lunt, an assistant professor of history at Southern Utah University, has studied LDS cultural identity and the forces that shape it. He describes the 25 percent vacancy in the quorum as “monumental.” If the new apostles truly are younger than the current members — Elder David A. Bednar is the youngest at 63 — they could have similar cultural influences that have shaped their worldview somewhat differently than their senior colleagues, Lunt says.

However, Douglas Alder, a local historian and former president of Dixie State University, says the new apostles may not differ all that much from the current leadership.

“The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is a unique group,” Alder says. “Their decisions have to be unanimous.”

There is no majority rule when it comes to the quorum and the First Presidency. In matters large enough to come before the 15 leaders for consideration, there must be a consensus before any direction is taken. That’s why Alder does not expect to see a “powerhouse” — or someone who brings a drastically different perspective — among the three new apostles.

Monson is the one who ultimately extends a call to serve as an apostle. So Alder says the church president will have to consider if potential candidates can function in harmony with the system of decision by consensus. The process works, Alder says, but it can take time.

The probable younger ages of the new apostles will still influence the church in some way, though they may only be gradual differences over time. Currently, the average age of the 12 living apostles is 78. Before the recent deaths of Scott, President Boyd K. Packer and Elder L. Tom Perry, the average age was 80. Even if all three new apostles are as old as the youngest apostle, 63-year-old Bednar, the average age will still come down to 75.

And more new apostles could join the ranks in coming years. Half of the current 12 are more than 80 years old. The church has reported that Monson is feeling the effects of age and President Russell M. Nelson, the next-most-senior apostle, is the oldest of the group at 91.

Like the call to the apostleship, Latter-day Saints believe it is ultimately God who chooses the president of the church. However, traditionally it has always been the longest-serving apostle, favoring those who became apostles at younger ages, like Monson.

“Ziff,” a writer for the blog Zelophehad’s Daughters, has crunched the numbers in regard to each apostle’s age and seniority in order to gauge his probability of ever serving as the president of the church. Despite his age, Nelson has a fairly high 40 percent chance of becoming the church president simply because he is next in line. However, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, the next in line as far as apostolic seniority, is only 83 years old, giving him a 50 percent chance of becoming the president of the church at some point, whether that is after Monson or Nelson.

Still, given the quorum’s elderly average age, there are two other apostles with an even higher chance of ever becoming president of the church. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, at 74 and fifth in line, has a 55 percent chance while Bednar, at 63 and eighth in line, has a high 68 percent chance.

While the relatively young ages of Bednar and the newest apostle, Elder Neil L. Andersen, 64, give them high percentages, if even one of the new apostles is significantly younger than those currently serving, there is a good chance he will become president of the church within a few decades.

“One of them has a pretty good shot of being in charge someday — of being recognized as the prophet,” Lunt says.

Leadership experience

While age may be one factor considered in the calling of new apostles, it’s certainly not the only one. In the past decade the church has ordained three new apostles: Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder D. Todd Chistofferson and Andersen. All three came from the seven-member Presidency of the Seventy, which oversees the various quorums of the Seventy.

Currently, there are eight quorums of the Seventy. Members of the first and second quorums, including the Presidency of the Seventy, are considered general authorities for the church, meaning they have worldwide leadership roles, even if they are assigned to particular areas. The members of the third through eighth quorums are called area seventies and only have authority in their particular geographic areas throughout the world.

Eight of the current twelve apostles served in either the first or second quorums of the Seventy prior to their call as apostles. The exceptions were Monson, Nelson, Oaks and Bednar. However, Monson, Oaks and Bednar all worked for the church at one point and Nelson had served as general president of the church’s Sunday School organization.

While it has become common to see apostles called up from the Seventy, with three openings there’s a chance one or more could come from outside the church’s current leadership. Both Oaks and Bednar, for example, became prominent within the church as presidents of church-owned universities. Oaks was also serving as a judge on the Utah Supreme Court at the time of his calling while Nelson was an internationally renowned surgeon and medical researcher.

Both Nelson and Oaks gave up their prominent careers to serve as apostles. Even a call to serve among the Seventy is enough to encourage some faithful Latter-day Saints to give up careers of prominence. Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk was serving as assistant secretary of the interior for Indian Affairs under the Obama Administration when he was asked to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy.

Someone like Echo Hawk, a Native American, would surely add diversity to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Not only is he a member of the Pawnee Nation, he’s also a member of the Democratic Party and held office as the attorney general of Idaho in the early 1990s.

The last apostle known to be a Democrat in the predominantly conservative quorum was the late President James E. Faust, who served as the second counselor to the late President Gordon B. Hinckley in the First Presidency. In 2014, The Salt Lake Tribune researched the party affiliation of the church’s top 15 leaders at the time (including Packer, Perry and Scott) and found nine registered Republicans and six unaffiliated: Eyring, Uchtdorf, Bednar, Cook, Christofferson and Andersen. However, some of the unaffiliated apostles have been known to register as Republicans to vote in primary elections, the Tribune reported.

Apostolic diversity

Politics, age, leadership experience, race, nationality — many Latter-day Saints will say none of these matter when it comes to those who serve as apostles. Members of the LDS Church believe every calling, or assignment, in the church comes by inspiration. They believe God is behind each calling, from apostles to bishops to the people who play the organ during church meetings (though an aptitude for actually playing the organ tends to be a prerequisite for that last one).

While it is Monson who extends the call to new apostles, Latter-day Saints revere him as a prophet and believe that God speaks through him. As such, they believe that Monson is only doing God’s will in calling new apostles. It is God, not Monson, who chooses them, they believe.

“They are called by the Lord,” says Lilia Valdivieso, a Latter-day Saint from St. George who was born and raised in Mexico. “Do we need diversity in the Quorum of the Twelve? I go by, it’s up to whatever Heavenly Father wants.”

However, Valdivieso admits that ethnic diversity could help the church’s perception among those who are not members of the church as well as minority groups within the church. She believes it would foster greater cultural sensitivity among church leaders and English-speaking members, who’ve never had to worry about understanding the counsel of church leadership.

Having attended Spanish-speaking congregations in both California and Utah, Valdivieso says she has seen how the church culture is often tied to American culture. And the link is something that is not always apparent to those who are part of that predominant culture. This can lead to unintended insensitivity when it comes to things like making sure proper arrangements have been made for translation of church messages.

“I think it’s a lack of understanding our culture,” she says of Latino Latter-day Saints.

While the LDS Church is a worldwide organization there is no denying it has strong ties to the United States and its culture.

In many ways it is a very American church. It began in New England, became a community in the Midwest and settled much of the Intermountain West. All but one of its top 12 leaders were born and raised in the United States. And political and social issues from the United States often find their way into the leaders’ addresses during General Conference.

The inherent Americanness of the church is more apparent in other countries, like Valdivieso’s native Mexico. When fellow Mexicans find out she is a member of the church, many respond in the same way: “Oh, that’s a white man’s church.”

“We give up a lot more as members of different cultures,” she says in reference to her church membership. “It’s a broad brush, and we’re painted more than we want to be.”

Yet she is encouraged by some of the changes she has seen, including a change in how General Conference addresses are delivered by church leaders who do not speak English as their primary language. Many members of the quorums of the Seventy come from around the world and speak a variety of languages. In recent years, those leaders have been allowed to choose whether to speak in English or their native tongue during church-wide talks.

“To hear the messages in our own language was amazing,” Valdivieso says, adding that it showed the church is opening more to other cultures.

English-speaking Latter-day Saints now only comprise 41 percent of the church membership. In recent years that percentage has dropped as the percentage of Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints has risen, now comprising roughly one-third of church membership. Valdivieso says even more Latinos might give the church a second look if they see themselves better represented in the highest leadership bodies.

Plus, a Latino apostle would help emphasize the church’s worldwide nature to the English-speaking U.S. citizens that currently define the church culture.

“Can you imagine if we had an apostle who had to wear earphones (for translation purposes) all the time because he didn’t speak the language?” Valdivieso asks. “That would be a shock to the Americans.”

Cultural identity

What’s not shocking is to think that some or even many Latino Latter-day Saints might want to see a Latino apostle. After all, it’s common for people to root for those within their culture.

Even Latter-day Saints as a whole do it with prominent people outside of the church. It would not be difficult to find members of the LDS Church who voted for Gov. Mitt Romney for president or listen to the music of The Killers simply because Romney and Killers frontman Brandon Flowers share their faith.

Lunt even addressed this topic more than a decade ago when he wrote about LDS Olympians and how members of the church from the United States would root for Olympians from other countries because of that shared faith.

Even within Utah there are subcultures with an inherent interest in certain figures because they belong to the same subculture. For example, General Conference talks by Holland, who grew up in St. George, are typically more newsworthy to Southern Utah audiences than they might be to the general church membership.

Human beings in general gravitate to those who share their culture, whether that culture is ethnic, religious, political or something else altogether.

But it’s not just Latter-day Saints from minority backgrounds that would like to see more ethnic diversity among the apostles. Despite a belief in divine will guiding the selection of apostles, many white members of the church who live in the United States talk openly of their desire to see more ethnic diversity.

Knowing that calls to the apostleship often come from among members of the Seventy, Alder acknowledges the growing number of seventies who come from developing countries. But he also notes that many of these leaders are first-generation Latter-day Saints. In a church where culture and doctrine often intertwine, a familiarity of that culture that comes down through family lines could play a role in leadership selection.

Currently, Uchtdorf is the most culturally diverse apostle only because he was born and raised in Germany rather than the United States. Alder says Uchtdorf has “proved to be absolutely wonderful” and many American Latter-day Saints would agree. His General Conference messages often create a buzz on social media.

But even though church leaders are now allowed to use their native languages during the conference, Uchtdorf continues to speak in English. For some listeners, his light German accent is even part of the appeal.

For others, it’s not how Uchtdorf says the words but what the words actually say. Lunt says Uchtdorf is probably the most socially progressive of the current apostles. Some have even called him the Mormon Pope Francis. He’s not changing church doctrine but he is known for bringing up elements of it that are not mentioned as much as other topics.

Lunt says the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve provide the church an opportunity to better define its internationalism. It is a move that would seem obvious after other steps toward growth, like the church’s recent publication of essays that address controversial topics, including its polygamous past.

Still, while Lunt says it is tempting to look at church leadership in a representational way — where members of the church from around the world see people like themselves in leadership — it still ultimately comes back to the LDS belief that God chooses those leaders for a specific purpose. Are they meant to function as a board of trustees or representatives of Christ? Or is it a little bit of both?

“In a way, it’s a discussion of what apostles really are,” Lunt says.

Follow Brian at Facebook.com/PasseyBrian or on Twitter and Instagram, @BrianPassey. Call him at 435-674-6296.