By Sandra Tanner

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With the death of two apostles this year the LDS Church was faced with the need to find two replacements. In spite of the fact that at least one third of the LDS Church membership is Latin American, the church turned to a North American and a German, both of whom are white. One is left to wonder why there was not more national or racial diversity sought.

In a 1996 interview for the Washington Times, President Hinckley was asked why there were no non-Americans in the Council of Twelve:

With overseas growth, the church’s second-tier leadership of 70 men now has Asians and Europeans, and Mr. Hinckley said non-Americans will someday sit in the top-tier Council of Twelve Apostles.

“I don’t know when it will come, but I think it will come,” he said. “Just the growth of the church will bring that about. We’re no longer a Utah church.” While 17 percent of the membership lives there, 30 percent lives in Latin America. (“Mormon’s Reach Extends Much Farther Than Utah,” by Larry Witham, Washington Times, Dec. 15, 1996, p .26)

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

The San Francisco Chronicle asked President Hinckley a similar question in 1997:

Q: When The Chronicle did a series last year on the global impact of the Mormons, we spoke to Mormons in Japan, Russia and Mexico, and some say the church has not moved fast enough to give power and authority to Mormons from other ethnic groups.

A: It’ll come. It’s coming. It’s coming. We have people from Mexico, Central America, South America, Japan, Europe among the general authorities [in the First and Second Quorums of the Seventy]. And that will increase, I think, inevitably. As we become more and more a world church, we’ll have greater world representation. (“Sunday Interview,” by Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1997)

When President Hinckley was interviewed in 1999, he was asked:

Q: As the church grows overseas, some foreign members have called for more autonomy from Salt Lake City. Do you envision that happening?

A: Never have heard of such a thing, I never have. I’ve been all over this world with the people of this church, everywhere. . . . I don’t find any dissidents. We have representation from all of these places. . . .

Q: What are the major challenges of your rapid growth?

A: Two things: leadership and building buildings to accommodate that growth. Now, all of our local leaders across the world are volunteer workers, and they have to be trained, and that’s a great challenge . . .

Q: Despite the globalization, the top leadership is still largely comprised of white American males. Do you plan to take affirmative steps to diversify your top leadership?

A: We’ve had diversity in our top leadership. We’ve had a man from Brazil, for instance, who’s black. Wonderful man. We have people from Japan and Germany and elsewhere in our top leadership. . . . As the church grows across the world, we’ll have more and more of that, I have no doubt whatsoever. It isn’t a matter of affirmatively doing anything. It’s a matter of finding worthy and able leadership, wherever they may be. (“Leading a World Faith Explosion with Roots in Small-Town America,” by Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1999)

Below is a list of the top ten languages spoken by LDS Church members, taken from the LDS Church web page, as of 2003:

Of particular interest is the fact that after English, the next nine languages are spoken by non-Anglo-Saxons. Evidently there was not one “worthy” and “able” man amongst these millions of people that would qualify for the position of apostle. Notice that German didn’t even make the list.

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