“Mormons Select Three New Leaders; all from Utah”
Associated Press, The Big Story
Brady McCombs
October 3, 2015”

Not Since 1906 have there been three vacancies in the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints’ Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. During the church’s semi-annual General Conference in October, three new Apostles were chosen, all of them white and from Utah. In order to
understand this choice in an increasingly globalized church where most of the members are neither white nor from Utah, the Associated Press turned to scholars of Mormonism including Patrick Mason (current Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University). Mason explained that although choosing an apostle from another nation would have made a statement about the international church, LDS authorities “made safe, solid and comfortable decisions that fit the template for choosing modern apostles in the church.” Mason also pointed out that two of the new apostle had major appointments in Africa and Japan, which suggests “that the church felt they could infuse international experience without having members who are from those countries.”

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