As long as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints follows precedent, the next president to succeed Russell M. Nelson will be the most senior member and president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
That person would be Dallin H. Oaks.
After Nelson’s death at the age of 101, the remaining leaders of the church’s governing body, The First Presidency, returned to their rank in the church’s Quorum of the Twelve. Throughout the history of the church, the Quorum has chosen each new president based on that seniority. At the top is Oaks, who is the faith’s longest-serving current apostle and has served as first counselor under Nelson since 2018.
The 93-year-old was born in Provo, Aug. 12, 1932. Before church leadership, Oaks had a career in the legal field and served as the president of Brigham Young University starting in 1971. In 1980, he became a justice of the Utah Supreme Court until his resignation in 1984, when he was first called to serve as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.
What an Oaks presidency could mean for the faith is perhaps the biggest question on Latter-day Saints’ minds. For Religion News Service historian and columnist Jana Riess, Oaks’ ascending to the highest role in church leadership means taking the faith in one of two directions.
The first would be much the same as Nelson’s tenure.
“It could also be somewhat different if he follows his own trajectory of the past couple of decades, and really doubles down on traditional gender roles and the proclamation on the family,” she said.
Oaks has been outspoken in his conservative beliefs on same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ+ issues, asserting in an official church interview in 2006 that same-sex attraction can be controlled.
It’s an issue that Oaks has made central to his time as an apostle, according to historian Benjamin Park of Sam Houston State University in Texas.
“Dallin H. Oaks is, in many ways, the author of the modern church's relationship to gender issues, to the law, to politics,” he said. “His ascension to the presidency would, in many ways, be the culmination of a career that has always and already deeply influenced the modern church.”
That hard line could contrast with some of the work Nelson spearheaded on LGBTQ+ issues. In 2019, Nelson reversed a controversial 2015 policy that labeled same-sex couples as apostates and restricted the children of those couples from being baptised or blessed without approval from church leadership.
His legal background could also influence his style. Riess said Oaks is plugged into current events and concerned about the rise of political authoritarianism.
“He could serve as a reminder of, essentially, justice and law and order and precedent and a lot of things that in America people have been throwing out the window politically,” she said. “I think he's very concerned about demagoguery and the adulation and essentially the worship that some people have for authoritarian political leaders who do not have the experience and the temperament to deserve that kind of adulation and blind obedience.”
While the church may be accustomed to tensions with people who hold liberal ideas, said Riess, it could be a new experience to deal with hostility from the political right.
“The rise of dissidents on the right is a relatively new phenomenon that the church doesn't yet seem to know how to deal with, and is simmering in a crisis largely of its own making, I would say,” she said.
Despite Oaks being a strong advocate for religious freedom and liberty, Utah State University Mormon studies professor Patrick Mason said there are limits on how much power the president has on the overall direction of the church.
“For the most part, the presidency has a kind of tempering and taming effect, in some ways,” he said. “It isn't just the kind of personal priorities, but the institutional priorities really win out oftentimes over the particular personality of the president.”
Official funeral services for Nelson will start Oct. 1. The church is gearing up for its semi-annual general conference Oct. 4-5. It has not been announced when a new leader will be named.
