Mormon Church stays close to home with new leadership picks

Reporting from SALT LAKE CITY —  The Mormon Church has chosen three new members for a top governing body that sets policy and runs the faith’s business operations — but none from a foreign country, as had been speculated.

The new members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, all from Utah, were serving in lower-level church leadership positions and have held executive posts in the private sector.

Ronald A. Rasband is a former chief executive of a chemical corporation. Gary E. Stevenson was the cofounder and president of an exercise equipment manufacturing company. Dale G. Renlund was a cardiologist and directed a cardiac transplant program.

The announcements marked a rare moment in church history. It had been six years since a new quorum member was chosen, and more than a decade since the leadership council had two openings. The last time there were three was in 1906.

The selections were announced Saturday during the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ conference in Salt Lake City by quorum member Henry B. Eyring.

Some church scholars had speculated that one of the selections would come from a country never before represented on the governing body. The one member of the current board from outside the United States is Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who was born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Germany.

The selections are safe, solid and comfortable decisions that fit the template for choosing modern apostles in the church, said Patrick Mason, associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University and the Howard W. Hunter chair of Mormon Studies.

They all have served many years in church leadership and are 60 to 65 years old, an age at which men often begin tenures on the quorum, Mason said.

Though all three men have distinguished records in church leadership and in their private careers, some Mormons will be disappointed that the church didn’t pick a minority or someone from outside the U.S., Mason said.

Mason noted that Renlund and Stevenson have held major leadership positions with the church in foreign countries: Renlund in Africa and Stevenson in Japan.

“That suggests that they care about finding leaders with international experience, but don’t feel like the leaders must themselves come from outside the U.S.,” Mason said.

Modeled after the biblical apostles, the group serves under the church president and his two counselors.

Quorum members serve until they die, and three recent deaths created the unprecedented void.