SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Russell M. Nelson, the oldest-ever president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Saturday night time on the age of 101, church officers introduced.
Nelson died at his house in Salt Lake Metropolis, church spokesperson Candice Madsen mentioned in an announcement.
Nelson, a former coronary heart surgeon, spent 4 a long time within the highest ranges of church management after he was chosen in 1984 to affix a prime church governing physique known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He ascended to the presidency in January 2018 when Thomas S. Monson died and in 2024 grew to become the primary president of the religion to hit the century mark.
The subsequent president of the religion, identified extensively because the Mormon church, was not instantly named, however is anticipated to be Dallin H. Oaks, per church protocol. He’s the subsequent longest-tenured member of the church’s governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah posted a heat tribute to Nelson on social media shortly after the announcement.
“For so long as I’ve identified him, he has exuded — and for me, he’s come to personify — the form of religion, humility, and quiet confidence that tends to be the fixed companion of a faithful servant and follower of Jesus Christ,” Lee wrote.
Nelson made vital adjustments to the church
The previous coronary heart surgeon had a vibrant and transformative tenure, particularly in 2018, his first yr, when he made a stunning announcement calling on folks to cease utilizing the shorthand names “Mormon” and “LDS” as substitutes for the total title of the faith, a pointy shift after earlier church leaders spent thousands and thousands to promote the moniker over a long time.
Nelson additionally made headlines the subsequent yr when he repealed guidelines that banned baptisms for kids of homosexual mother and father and labeled same-sex {couples} as sinners eligible for expulsion. These 2015 insurance policies had generated widespread backlash.
However regardless that Nelson’s administration was gentler and extra welcoming to LGBTQ+ folks than these of earlier presidents, the church stance on same-sex marriage didn’t change. His administration additionally sharpened guidelines limiting the participation of members who pursue gender-affirming medical procedures or change their names, pronouns or how they costume, resulting in criticism that it will marginalize transgender members.
Nelson and certainly one of his prime counselors described their strategy to LGBTQ+ members as attempting to steadiness the “love of the Lord and the regulation of the Lord.”
Presidents of the Utah-based religion are thought-about prophets who lead the church by way of revelations from God in collaboration with two prime counselors and members of the Quorum of the Twelve.
Nelson was identified for main the church by way of the COVID-19 pandemic and severing the religion’s century-long ties with the Boy Scouts of America, creating the church’s personal youth program that additionally may serve the greater than half of its 17 million members who reside exterior the U.S. and Canada.
The disassociation got here after the Boy Scouts of America determined to permit LGBTQ+ youth members and grownup volunteers to affix.
Tenure included scrutiny over abuse reviews
Throughout his tenure, long-simmering scrutiny swelled over the way in which the religion handles sexual abuse reviews lodged with native leaders. An Related Press investigation discovered the faith’s sexual abuse reporting hotline will be misused by its leaders to divert abuse accusations away from regulation enforcement and as a substitute to church attorneys who could bury the issue, leaving victims in hurt’s method.
Nelson and church leaders defended their practices, saying the hotline “has every part to do with defending kids and has nothing to do with cover-up.”
The church additionally confronted scrutiny about closed door, one-on-one interviews between youth and native grownup leaders the place questions may come up about id and sexuality.
The religion modified its pointers to direct lay leaders by no means to ignore a report of abuse, a extra direct instruction than earlier pointers. It additionally allowed kids to carry a father or mother or grownup with them throughout one-one-one interviews with native church leaders often called bishops.
Nelson expanded management and solid partnerships
Nelson additionally appointed non-American leaders to the all-white and principally American prime governing physique and pushed to publish regional hymnbooks that commemorate native music and tradition worldwide.
The president shortened Sunday providers and accelerated a long-running push to construct extra temples, dotting the world with the religion’s lavish homes of worship regardless of resistance in some components of the U.S.
He additionally solid a proper partnership with the NAACP. Till 1978, the church banned Black males from the lay priesthood, a coverage rooted within the racist perception that black pores and skin was a curse. The church disavowed the explanations behind the ban in a 2013 essay, however by no means issued a proper apology. It stays one of many most delicate matters for the church.
Born in Salt Lake Metropolis in 1924, Nelson joined the faith in younger maturity. He was a physician on the age of twenty-two and served a two-year Military medical tour of obligation in the course of the Korean Warfare earlier than resuming a medical profession that included being director of thoracic surgical procedure residency on the College of Utah.
Nelson was identified for his talent of precision, which made him a profitable surgeon throughout his time in church management. He had a repute for stressing obedience to regulation and to what he known as the “covenant path,” the collection of ordinances and practices that mark a life within the religion, mentioned Mormon scholar Matthew Bowman, a faith professor at Claremont Graduate Universities.
Nelson and his first spouse, Dantzel White, had 10 kids collectively. After she died in 2005, Nelson married Wendy Watson in 2006.
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