Ex-surgeon in line to be new Mormon church president
Russell M. Nelson, 93, deemed unlikely to make changes
SALT LAKE CITY — The man set to become the next Mormon church president is a 93-yearold former heart surgeon whose conservative track record on the religion’s leadership panel has led Mormon scholars to predict he won’t make any major changes.
Russell M. Nelson is likely to be formally named to the post in the coming days under longstanding church protocol designed to ensure a smooth hando- ver by giving the post to the longest-tenured member of the governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Nelson has been on the panel for three decades.
President Thomas S. Monson died Tuesday night at his home in Salt Lake City after leading the church for nearly a decade. He was 90.
Nelson would become the second-oldest president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. Only Joseph Fielding Smith was older, by one month, when he became church president in 1970.
Expect more “continuity than change” from Nelson, who seems to maintain a conservative interpretation of church doctrine while trying not to alienate anyone, said Patrick Mason, associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University in California and the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies.
“He has a generous impulse within him, but it coexists alongside a fierce commitment to orthodoxy,” Mason said.
Scholars don’t expect Nelson to deviate from the church’s current stance on LGBT issues. The faith has opposed gay marriage and homosexual activity while trying to foster an empathetic stance toward LGBT people.
In a 2016 speech, Nelson defended the religion’s decision to adopt new rules banning children living with gay parents from being baptized until age 18 and clarifying that people in same-sex relationships can be kicked out of the religion.
That policy drew harsh criticism from gay church members and their supporters, who considered it a setback from recent progress.
Presidents of the Utah-based faith are considered prophets who lead the church through revelations from God in collaboration with two top counselors and members of the Quorum of the Twelve.