The Salt Lake Tribune has a good story today playing the guessing game of who will be named the new member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, replacing Joseph B. Wirthlin who passed away last week.
It’s always interesting to speculate on who new apostles will be because they will be instant headline makers for the rest of their lives (in Utah anyway) with everything they say and do, and ultimately, they may end up being the President and Prophet of the LDS Church.
During the last round of appointments in the wake of the passing of Gordon B. Hinckley, I predicted that Thomas S. Monson would select a Latino for a spot in the Quorum of Twelve as representation for the rapidly growing Latino segment of the LDS faith. I was wrong, and D. Todd Christofferson was appointed, but I will again predict a Latino individual will be selected (although what I or anyone else thinks is irrelevant, because the decision is left solely to Thomas S. Monson and LDS faithful believe the decision is inspired by God.)
So who are the top candidates? First, here’s this funny selection from Peggy Fletcher Stack’s article:
The two most recent apostles, Christofferson and Quentin L. Cook, and three of the past four, have been called from the First Quorum of Seventy, the third tier of the church’s hierarchy and a kind of farm team for future apostles.
I chuckled at the comparison to a farm team (a baseball reference if you didn’t know).
Two prime Latino candidates are Elder Claudio Costa (Brazil) and Elder Walter Gonzalez (Uruguay), either of whom would be the first Latino member of the Twelve.
Another possibility, according to the Trib, is Whitney Clayton, who drove the Church’s Pro-Prop 8 wagon. As an outsider looking in, I’ve got to think that a selection of Clayton would be seen by anti-Prop 8′ers as a “heckuvajob Whitney” slap in the face to the anti-Prop 8 movement and would create more ill will.
We may not know until April, however, when the Church reconvenes for its next General Conference. A decision could be made sooner, but announcements traditionally take place at the semiannual meetings in SLC.
-Tyler
I’m betting that we won’t know until April. Beyond that – why speculate?
Because it’s fun
“We will now hear from Elder J. Steven Young of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.”
They should change the name from “Quorum of Twelve Apostles” to “Quorum of Twenty Apostles” and nominate nine new people, including a Latino, a Jew, a liberal, an Okie, and a former communist.
David,
I don’t know. The Tribune article addresses a very good utilitarian reason not to wait- the workload of the 12 is simply enormous. If conference were just a month or two away, it may be worth waiting, but with 4 months? I feel that is a strong reason to fill the vacancy now.
And I agree with Tyler. Guessing is fun (though I am TERRIBLE at guessing stuff like this).
How about Eric Frandsen? How’s that for a dark horse candidate? He’s youthful, wise, charming and has dodged the firery darts of the adversary on Aggie Call through 4 years of the Brent Guy era. He’s battle tested!
I nominate Gladys Knight.
I like Craigs nomination! (Except that I think she’s doing Vegas right now, could she get out of her contract with the Flamingo?)