That’s pretty cool, Devyn.

I’m excited by it, but my selfish side would still prefer that they’d made history by lifting the coffee ban, especially considering how important coffee is to the economies of the nations from which all of those new seventy were called. (The coffee grown in the Antigua region of Guatemala is among the finest in the world — certainly one of my favorites. In a standard dark roast, it has a strong earthy scent, a medium body, nutty overtones, a well balanced and crisp acidity, and a velvety texture (mouthfeel) with a lingering dry finish. Very tasty.)

I also don’t remember there being a conference where so many speakers talked about their life before being a Mormon. I recall at least two speakers in this conference discussing their life in a part-member or non-member family. Am I right to find this to be historical?

The diversity of backgrounds of new general authorities being called probably is an indicator that the Church outside the United States has reached a greater maturation point. That is, the priesthood holders outside the United States are becoming (more and more) people who have the right level of spirituality, education and experience in church leadership – meaning they can be called to be stewards over the worldwide organization. That’s a major development.

I can remember going to some remote parts of Guatemala (in the early 1990s) and feeling frustrated by the lack of priesthood leadership – just to preside over the local people. Full-time missionaries were often asked to make up for deficiencies in hometeaching and sometimes even in other critical leadership positions (such as branch presidents, etc.).

I should say that at the time there was already a Guatemalan Seventy (Elder Amado), that there was a temple in Guatemala City – and that the growth and development of members in the capital city was very good.

Still, like Devyn in the post, I’m happy to see that these new members of the First Quorum of the Seventy are from outside the United States. I think it’s a good sign.

Seth and DKL – I think the issue is that most Mormons ingest more caffeine from Diet Coke and such than they probably would if they drank some coffee so I don’t think the caffeine argument holds water.

Danithew – Sorry I did not see your comment on the Sunday thread but great comment. Usually the area authorities are local to their area so that was not surprising to me. There are only 7 minority GAs in the 70 today. With the 5 called that nearly doubles the number of GAs who are from ethnic minority groups. This is wonderful!

dkl #1

I actually agree with you! for both reasons cited.

DKL, Coffee is not important to the economy in the philippines, and I’m not sure how important it is to the economy in Germany (If it is more important than it is to the economy in the US, I’d be surprised…)

i heart devyns!!!

Margaret – great comment. I am trying to play up the positives – particularly because we have basically doubled the number of non-white GAs with the four newly called 70s, but you have certainly hit a nerve for me. I see these baby steps, but no baby steps of note regarding the African population (as you know my view from my Dialogue paper). Of the three men of African descent you cite who have served in the AA – only one, Elder Martins, was a full GA. So here we are with no men of African descent in the red seats. It is interesting to me that when I bring this up with active white members, I usually get a “oh that is interesting, probably they are just don’t have the leadership abilities.” Perhaps we have to get more active members to give a da** about this issue and maybe that would help. I really don’t know what the answer is, but I agree wholeheartedly that it is time to at least walk and stop the baby stepping. I am fascinated to read your documentary when it is completed.

I hope this is not a “one shot” deal. The First Quorum (the permanent general authority seventies) has been largely white American. Until recently, non-americans had tended to be called to the Second Quorum as temporary general authority seventies (now there are hardly any in the second quorum) or much more likely, as temporary area authority seventies. The presidency of the 70 has yet to have a non-white member (I am willing to be corrected if this is wrong), as is the case of the First Presidency and the Twelve. I am glad, though, that we have a European in the presidency of the 70 and in the 12.

I believe the day will come, perhaps in the era of my grandchildren or great grand children, when the Church will be a truly global, multi-racial church in terms of its highest leadership as well as its members.

David H – Just as an FYI there were 13 or so non-whites in the 70 in 1993 and only 7 in 2003. This nearly doubles the non-white numbers. Will it change? I am hopeful like Margaret that it will. There are a slew of Dialogue articles on the subject from 2006 that might be of interest to you.

Margaret – the documentary sounds wonderful. I look forward to seeing the finished version. I sent you the dialogue article.

My biggest concern about waiting until our grandchildren or great-grandchildren’s generations is that thousands and thousands of wonderful non-white members will be lost…

By the way, recent European 70′s, before Elder Uchtdorf, were Jacob deJager, F. Enzio Busche, and Charles Didier. And Didier is (or was recently) in the presidency of the 70.

Yoshihiko Kikuchi (Japan) has been a 1st Quorom 70 since 1977.

Adney Y. Komatsu, a Hawaiian of Japanese descent was a 1st Q 70 from 76 to 93.

Tai Kwok Yuen, of Hong Kong, was a 2nd Quorom 70 from 92 to 97.

You can see a list of most all past 70′s here:
http://personal.lig.bellsouth.net/w/o/wol3/menu.htm?

In terms of church growth, Africa is the new Latin-America. I don’t know how many years that church growth in the African continent is behind the point in the curve where similar growth occurred in Latin-America. My guess is about 20 to 25 years.

Look in the Church News and you see stake presidents called in their 30′s in Latin America. I think they are usually men who grew up in the church.

I think it was the early 80′s when missions finally opened up in Africa (outside of South Africa). So if Africa follows the same pattern as Latin-America, in the 2010′s you’ll see born-in-church 30-something men called as stake presidents in Nigeria and Ghana, along with 40-something and 50-something men who joined the church as teens or young adults. Assuming the same pattern is followed.

I believe all priesthood leadership callings above a certain level are inspired. I think almost all bishop callings are inspired, and I sincerely believe all stake president callings and higher positions are inspired. Therefore, I believe that the people who are currently GAs are the men whom the Lord wants to be GAs, given the pool of church members He has to work with.

I think the Lord works in terms of generations. As Spencer Kimball said, the Lord doesn’t send generals and armies to do his work, he sends babies. Sure, there are golden adult converts who go on to be great leaders, bishops, stake presidents, and GA’s. But for a sizeable “crop” of higher level leaders, the Lord also needs stable wards and stakes into which to send the babies, and raise a generation of leaders within the established programs of the church, from Primary through missionary service.

I think the “knee of the curve” in church growth in an area is when the first crop of babies born in the church in that area goes on (or comes back from) their missions.

So what we’re all hoping to see, more GA’s called from all over the globe, is not something that can be accomplished with quotas or affirmative action. It takes time to raise them up.

The programs to “grow” leaders are part and parcel of the gospel and church programs, and those things are in place to the degree that the church is in place, and the gospel and church programs are being actively implemented.

I think we’ll be seeing Africans, Asians, and Pacific Islanders in the red seats before long, and they will be the offspring of the young parents who have gone through the many foreign temples built under President Hinckley’s presidency.

Bookslinger – I think that your scenario makes sense in general, except I don’t see why an African or two could not be called now. As Margaret mentioned two were released as area authorities. So clearly they are talented enough to probably do it. I have been hearing that scenario for 20 years and not a whole lot has changed in the GA ranks so clearly either the scenario is wrong or something else is wrong. I don’t know the answer, except that I hope and pray it changes someday soon.

A thing to consider in the ability of a region to provide general authorities is not the capability or preparation of individual leaders, but also the ability of the region to get by without those leaders. As long as the bench is thin to provide bishops and stake and mission presidents, those men who could be general authorities can’t be spared from what they are currently doing for the church.

Bookslinger – Elder Martins is the only GA of African descent we have had – GAs being only those in the first 2 quorums of 70.

John Mansfield – I have heard this many times, but I am not sure how much I buy it since we have released many stake presidents and bishops in these areas so I don’t think that sparing 1-2 people to become GAs would destroy the Church in those areas. While I think that as a broad generalization it makes sense, I think that it is, in the end, an excuse or an attempt to justify the situation in our minds…

I think this post and the comments show that even though the LDS is not an American church anymore, we’re still not truly international. We’re more a western hemisphere church, with a decent showing from western Europe and the Philippines (as Elder Carmack’s comments suggested). I’m less concerned about where the leaders are from (since I tend to agree with Bookslinger that in about 10 years there will be a noticeable increase in the number of GAs from Africa) than that Asia has hardly been touched by missionaries. We’ve only poked around the edges at best and Asia is a lot more than East and Southeast Asia. I never hear anyone complain about the small number of Asian GAs even though we’ve been in Asia much longer than Africa. There is a gaping hole in Asia where we’ve gone almost nowhere- and this isn’t because of Islam; most people living in that hole are not Muslim. There is still so much to do in Asia.

But that’s exactly my point, Margaret (your post at BCC was fascinating, by the way). Your examples are from a few countries on the eastern edges of Asia. Asia is a much, much bigger place than Japan and Korea. But Asian members as a whole had reasonable representation.

There are so many factors, Islam, communism, religious freedom or lack of it, and many thing formerly and presently hindering the introduction of missionaries and church organizations in many parts of Central, Southern, and Eastern and Southeastern Asia.

For all its 1.1 billion people, there is only one LDS mission in India, the India Bangalore mission. Full list here.

The church and the missionary department has learned lessons from the uncontrolled, explosive, and often times unmanageable, growth in Latin America and the Philippines. Hopefully, those lessons have been put into place in Africa. And according to a conversation I had with someone in the church’s service center in India, it sounded like those lessons are being implemented there too.

In a nutshell, expanding from “centers of strength” instead of scattering missionaries into remote locations.

One method that the church hasn’t used since the colonizing days of Brigham Young, is not to send out missionaries, but send out families as a colony.

India has a lot of IT (Information Technology) talent. What if the church called on several entrepreneurs or member-owned IT companies to send a few dozen LDS employees and their families to India to open offices there? There’d be an instant branch if they were placed in the same city and neighborhood.

Amira hit on a really good idea about entire families moving to remote parts of the world. There is so much that could be done through individual and private group initiative. We don’t have to stand back and let the church’s missionary department and full-time missionaries do everything.

I sincerely believe there will be a time, before the 2nd Coming, in which there will be very few, if any, full-time missionaries serving in the United States. They will all be sent foreign. Ward missionaries (and member missionaries) are authorized to teach investigators, and every ward and branch has priesthood holders to baptize and confirm.

Margaret, I wish I could get you in contact with an old friend, JT Smith. He was raised Southern Baptist, converted to Seventh Day Adventist (where he was in the local leadership), then became LDS. He was an incredible man and his coming to grips with racial issues within the Church was a fascinating and inspiring story. I met him while living in a very rural ward in Southern California, where his family was the first African American family ever in the ward. It opened a lot of really healthy dialogue. A boy in my Primary class had never even seen a black person before, so even the youngsters got an education as we discussed why JT’s grandson had a different color skin than anyone else.

Anyhow, I lost contact with him when we moved away, but every time I read of your documentary, I think of JT. I keep waiting to see his name or face pop up in higher leadership somewhere.

March 31, 2007 issue of Church News. Section on new Mission presidents:

Loveday Iheanyichi Nwankpa, 50, Nigeria Port Harcourt Mission; Okpu Umuobo Ward, Aba Nigeria Stake; stake president; former high councilor, stake and ward executive secretary and stake public affairs director. Country security manager. Born in Eziama Ovungwu, Nigeria, to Amos Osuagwu and Love Mercy Nwankpa. Married Love Oluchi Aghale, four children.

A temple ordinance worker, Sister Nwankpa is a former ward Relief Society and Primary president and Relief Society teacher. Born in Umuagu Ibeku, Nigeria, to Onyebuchi and Edina Aghale.

Seth
thanks for mention that latin american nations are higly dependable on cocain and black market. Im sorry to rememeber you the biggest drug market is in USA.
Black market?? just take a ride nearby downtown longbeach Ca, and you will see a HUGE sample for that

I don’t know the answer to your question. It might be true if the people involved were corrupt and used the church. There is, I believe, a lot of corruption in Africa. But it doesn’t invalidate the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cling to what you know is right and true and do the right thing yourself. The Lord will light your way.