The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has spent the previous few weeks in a second of each mourning and transition. On Sept. 28, 2025, a capturing and arson at a Latter-day Saints meetinghouse in Michigan killed 4 other people and wounded 8 extra. What’s extra, Russell M. Nelson, president of the church, died the day prior to at age 101. Dallin H. Oaks, the longest-serving of the church’s peak leaders, was once introduced the brand new president on Oct. 14.
Oaks will inherit management of a spiritual establishment this is each deeply American and an increasing number of international – range at odds with how it’s in most cases represented in mainstream media, from “The Secret Life of Mormon Wives” to “The Book of Mormon” Broadway musical.
As a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, I analysis Latter-day Saints communities throughout the USA, in particular Latina immigrants and younger adults. When presenting my analysis, I’ve spotted that many of us nonetheless intently affiliate the church with Utah, the place its headquarters are positioned.
The Latter-day Saints temple in Cochabamba, Bolivia, was once devoted in 2000.
Parallelepiped09/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
The church has performed a pivotal function in Utah’s historical past and tradition. Nowadays, although, best 42% of its citizens are individuals. The stereotype of Latter-day Saints as most commonly white, conservative American citizens is solely one of the long-standing misconceptions about LDS communities and ideology.
Many of us are stunned to be told there are colourful congregations a long way from the American West’s “Mormon Corridor.” There are religious Latter-day Saints all over from Ghana and the United Arab Emirates to Russia and mainland China.
World expansion
Joseph Smith based The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in upstate New York in 1830 and instantly despatched missionaries to evangelise alongside the frontier. The primary in another country missionaries traveled to England in 1837.
In a while after Global Battle II, church leaders overhauled their missionary method to building up the collection of global missions. This technique ended in expansion around the globe, particularly in Central The us, South The us and the Pacific Islands.
Nowadays, the church has over 17.5 million individuals, in step with church data. A majority reside outdoor the U.S., unfold throughout greater than 160 international locations.
A method the church and researchers observe this international expansion is by means of development of recent temples.Those constructions, used now not for weekly worship however particular ceremonies like weddings, have been as soon as nearly completely positioned in the USA. Nowadays, they exist in dozens of nations, from Argentina to Tonga.
All through Nelson’s presidency, which started in 2018, he introduced 200 new temples, greater than any of his predecessors. Temples are a bodily and symbolic illustration of the church’s dedication to being a world faith, even though cultural tensions stay.
Two missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stroll during the Missionary Coaching Middle in Provo, Utah, in 2008.
AP Picture/George Frey
Amongst U.S. individuals, demographics also are moving. Seventy-two % of American individuals are white, down from 85% in 2007, in step with the Pew Analysis Middle. Rising numbers of Latinos – 12% of U.S. individuals – have performed an important function maintaining congregations around the nation.
There are congregations in each and every U.S. state, together with the small group of Grand Blanc, Michigan, website of the tragic capturing. Suspect Thomas Jacob Sanford, who was once fatally shot by means of police, had long past on a up to date tirade towards Latter-day Saints all through a dialog with an area political candidate.
Within the following days, an American member of the church raised loads of hundreds of greenbacks for Sanford’s circle of relatives.
Rising pains
Regardless of the church’s range, its institutional foundations stay firmly rooted in the USA. The highest management our bodies are nonetheless composed nearly completely of white males, and maximum are American-born.
Because the church continues to develop, questions stand up about how smartly the norms of a Utah-based church are compatible the realities of individuals in Manila or Mexico Town, Bangalore or Berlin. How a lot room is there, even in U.S. congregations, for native cultural expressions of religion?
Latino Latter-day Saints and individuals in Latin The us, as an example, have confronted pushback towards cultural traditions that have been noticed as distinctly “not LDS,” comparable to making altars and giving choices all through Dia de los Muertos. In 2021, the church introduced a Spanish-language marketing campaign the usage of Day of the Lifeless imagery to extend pastime amongst Latinos. Many individuals have been satisfied to peer this illustration. Nonetheless, some ladies I spoke with stated that an emphasis on whiteness and American nationalism, in addition to anti-immigrant rhetoric they’d heard from different individuals, deterred them from absolutely celebrating their cultures.
Other people attend the twice-annual convention of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6, 2024, in Salt Lake Town.
AP Picture/Rick Bowmer
Even aesthetic main points, like musical kinds, continuously replicate a distinctly American fashion. The standardized hymnal, as an example, comprises patriotic songs like “America the Beautiful.” This emphasis on American tradition can really feel particularly out of sync in puts in international locations with prime club charges that experience histories of U.S. army or political interventions.
Expectancies about clothes and bodily look, too, have brought on questions on illustration, belonging and authority. It was once best in 2024, for example, that the church introduced individuals in humid spaces sleeveless variations of the sacred clothes Latter-day Saints put on underneath clothes as a reminder in their religion.
Traditionally, the church seen tattoos as taboo – a contravention of the sanctity of the frame. Many portions of the arena have hundreds of years of sacred tattooing traditions – together with Oceania, which has prime charges of church club.
Trade forward?
Amongst many demanding situations, the following president of the church will navigate the way to lead a world church from its American headquarters – a church that is still misunderstood and stereotyped, every so often to the purpose of violence.
The temple in Laie, Hawaii, opened within the early 1900s, making it some of the church’s oldest.
Kaveh/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
The collection of Latter-day Saints continues to develop in lots of portions of the arena, however this expansion brings a better want for cultural sensitivity. The church, traditionally very uniform in its efforts to standardize Latter-day Saints historical past, artwork and teachings, is discovering that more difficult to handle when congregations span dozens of nations, languages, customs and histories.
Organizing the church like a company, with a top-down decision-making procedure, too can make it tough to handle painful racial histories and the desires of marginalized teams, like LGBTQ+ individuals.
The transition in management gives a possibility now not just for the church however for the wider public to higher perceive the multifaceted, international nature of Latter-day Saints’ lives lately.
This text has been up to date with Dallin Oaks formally named president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Oct. 14.
