Dallin Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice and longtime official of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), is the church’s 18th president, officials said Tuesday.
The 93-year-old succeeds the late Russell M. Nelson, a 101-year-old who took the office of “prophet, seer, and revelator” in 2017. Nelson died on the evening of Sept. 27 and was buried last week.
A tragic shooting and arson attack at a Grand Blanc, Michigan, LDS meetinghouse unfolded just hours later on the morning of Sept. 28, when 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford rammed his truck through the church doors. The veteran opened fire on worshippers and set the building ablaze, killing four and wounding eight in an apparent act of targeted anti-Mormon violence before police fatally shot the attacker….