News Flash: Some Critics of the Church are Unfair and Unreasonable

Among some of the more deranged (or at least unreasonable) critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there has been intense criticism of yesterday’s announcement that Elder Whitney Clayton will now serve as the senior president of the Seventy.  This, a few have suggested, is his consolation prize for having been passed over for the apostleship.  He got a promotion nonetheless, they say, and will get a handsome raise.  And he’s a white Utahn.  (Icky!)

Of course, he spent much of his career in Southern California, and he’s lived for years in Peru and in Argentina and speaks fluent Spanish.  But he’s just a typical American white guy.  Boring.

I hate to rain on such critics’ parade, but . . .

Well, Elder Clayton’s being selected as senior president of the Seventy was hardly a surprise, since, until Saturday, he was the second most senior president of the Seventy.  On Saturday, Elder Ronald Rasband, the only man senior to him in the presidency, was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Here’s how the presidency of the Seventy looked after April 2015 General Conference:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/05/general-authorities-and-general-officers-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints?lang=eng

Notice the positions of Elder Rasband and Elder Clayton.

Question:  Imagine that John is the second most senior person in a group and that Tom is the twenty-fifth person in the group as regards seniority.  Now imagine that the primo most senior person — we can call him George — leaves the group.  Who will now be the most senior person, with George out of the picture?  Will it be Tom, or will it be John?  (Think carefully before you answer.)

A note about the other members of that April-October 2015 presidency of the Seventy might also be in order here:

Elder Donald Hallstrom was born in Hawaii and spent most of his life there prior to his call as a General Authority, along with a stint in England.

Elder Richard Maynes hails from Berkeley, California, and, even before becoming a general Church leader, lived for at least five years in Uruguay, Paraguay, and Mexico.

Elder Craig Christensen was born in Utah, but spent at least part of his career in San Francisco and had years of Church service in Chile and Mexico under his belt prior to his call to serve as a General Authority.

Elder Ulisses Soares, rather awkwardly for the critics, is a native of São Paulo, Brazil.

Elder Lynn Robbins is, it’s true, a Utahn, but he spent a number of years in Argentina and Uruguay even before becoming a member of the Seventy.

But here’s the really funny part:

At least one huffy and mocking post about Elder Clayton’s new status as senior president of the Seventy, in its haste to dismiss him as a bland white male Utahn and to brand Church leadership as racist, has altogether failed to mention the fact — even though it’s contained in the same Church news release — that, with all of the other presidents of the Seventy moving up following the departure of Elder Rasband, a vacancy was created in the seven-member presidency . . .  and that the Brethren filled that vacancy with a California-born Asian-American who speaks fluent Chinese, has spent years in Asia, and holds a doctorate from Oxford: