Latter-day Saints will be watching carefully as church gets new president
Presumptive next leader Dallin H. Oaks has drawn fire from LGTBQ allies
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be reading the tea leaves during the coming week as they receive a new president, often referred to as the prophet in the 17.5-million member denomination. By far the most likely new president will be Dallin H. Oaks — who would come into office as the church’s most controversial leader in at least the last 40 years.
Oaks’ ascension is made possible by the death last Saturday night of Russell M. Nelson, who had led the church since 2018. He died at the age of 101 after serving seven and a half years. Despite his age, he was known for his personal energy and a drive that allowed to him to make significant changes in church practices, such as reducing Sunday meeting schedules from three hours to two and launching the construction of dozens of temples worldwide. His funeral services will be held next week.
The LDS church is led by a president, who is called to the position for life. He in turn organizes a First Presidency, made up of himself and two apostles, who work with a group of men known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who also are called for life. Traditionally, once a president dies, the First Presidency is dissolved and the most senior member of the Twelve Apostles becomes the president. Theoretically, the apostles could select a different president rather than appointing their senior member, but that has never happened in the history of the 195-year-old church, and such a move would be extremely surprising.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the third largest Christian denomination in the United States, after the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention.
It is not known with certainty when the church president will be formally selected. Traditionally, such a selection is not made until after the funeral of the departing president, although that precedent hasn’t always been followed. It is also possible that the selection could be made before this weekend’s General Conference, a twice-annually gathering of about 20,000 church members in Salt Lake City that will be broadcast or streamed worldwide. Even if he isn’t named as president before General Conference, he will be presiding over the conference as president of the apostles and the church’s most senior member of leadership.
Oaks, 93, was first named an apostle in 1984. Before taking the position, he had been a justice of the Utah Supreme Court and had been talked about as a potential member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before becoming a justice, he was president of the church-owned Brigham Young University.
It is safe to say that Oaks will come into the church’s top position as the one who has drawn the most controversy in recent years as he has been outspoken in promoting the Proclamation on the Family, a 1995 quasi-scriptural church document that takes a traditional approach to gender issues: It says that marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God, calls gender an essential and eternal characteristic of human identity, and gives some support to traditional gender roles in marriage. Although it doesn’t explicitly mention homosexuality, it has been widely interpreted within the church as condemning same-sex marriage and homosexual behavior, and in fact in 2018 the LDS church took the lead in successfully campaigning against California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage1.
In recent years, Oaks has spoken more often than any other church leader at General Conference in supporting the principles of the Proclamation on the Family. This is not endeared him to church’s more progressive members and LGTBQ allies, who have frequently criticized him on social media.
The last time someone ascended to the church’s presidency amid significant controversy was in 1985, when Ezra Taft Benson, who had been a secretary of Agriculture in the Dwight Eisenhower administration, became the church’s prophet2. When he was most active in politics, Benson had been known as a strong anti-communist and a member of the far-right John Birch Society. Prior to becoming the prophet, Benson had often spoken in church gatherings on political themes. However, upon a ascending to the church’s top position, he generally avoided political subjects in his sermons.
Although Benson was a staunch Republican, Oaks has not been involved in partisan politics, in keeping with the church’s current policies. He has, however, been a staunch defender of religious freedom and appeared to be the architect of the “Utah Compromise,” legislation that outlawed LGTBQ discrimination in employment and housing in exchange for guarantees that pro-LGTBQ policies would not be imposed on churches or other religious organizations.
As Oaks begins his presidency, church members will be watching two upcoming key decisions: what he does, if anything, about LGTBQ issues, and whom he selects to become an apostle to fill his current position.
LGTBQ issues
Talk on social media from LGTBQ allies in the church show a wariness toward Oaks’ ascendancy. They certainly will be watching to see what he says about LGTBQ issues during his General Conference. He might opt to say nothing about them — as has been the case at many General Conferences. Or he could double down, indicating that those issues will be a key priority for him in the new position.
The big fear among many LGTBQ allies is that he will move sometime during his term to canonize the Proclamation on the Family, which would make it part of the LDS church’s scriptural canon, putting it on the same level as the Bible. The church has not added to its canon since 1978, when it reversed its doctrine that had prevented blacks from participating in temple rituals and prevented black men from becoming part of the church’s priesthood, which is currently open to all boys and men beginning at the age of 12.
The next apostle
Officially, there are no men in the church’s middle tier of leadership vying to become the next apostle. But among careful observers of the church’s inner workings, speculation has surfaced about the prospects of several men:
🟪 If there is a such thing as a frontrunner, it might be Gérald Caussé, the church’s presiding bishop, meaning that he oversees many church operations, such as those involving finances. A Frenchman, he would become only the second current apostle who speaks English as a second language. He is widely seen as one of the more liberal possibilities, as he spoken sympathetically about immigrants.
🟪 If Oaks were to appoint the first black apostle and the first from Africa, it could be Edward Dube, who has held a high position being a member of what is known as a Presidency of the Seventy.
🟪 Two other possibilities if Oaks is to name a black would be Ahmad Corbitt, who has been a leader in the church’s Young Men (for teenagers) organization, and Peter M. Johnson, who has been a leader in the church’s missionary program. Corbitt is widely seen as a hardliner who would carefully hew to orthodoxy.
🟪 If Oaks were to select someone who shares his background as an education leader, that person would be Clark Gilbert, the church education commissioner, meaning he oversees the church’s universities, including Brigham Young University. He has been president of BYU-Idaho. He also has been a businessman and a publisher of the church-owned Deseret News. He is seen as something of a hardliner.
The proposition was later found to be unconstitutional.
Technically, all the church’s apostles and First presidency members are considered to be prophets. But only the president is frequently referred to as “the prophet.”