Leadership is needed everywhere in church

This may be a worldwide church, but general conference still takes place in the United States of America, which means that newly called general authorities are subject to the American ritual of the televised news conference.

Watching Elder D. Todd Christofferson deal with the press was highly instructive. He was poised, pleasant, relaxed and yet careful.

He had enough experience as a general authority that he recognized the pits that were being dug before his feet and avoided stepping into any of them.

What struck me, as I watched the press conference on BYU TV via satellite, was how nervous the reporters were. Then it dawned on me: General authorities go before the cameras far more often than these Salt Lake-based reporters do.

Elder Christofferson was by no means facing the attack-pack crowd that politicians face at press conferences. Nor did he display any of the wariness of a politician who has felt the barbs of a twisted news story.

Yet he knew that he spoke now for the whole church, not just for himself. That's a heavy responsibility, and the Brethren learned decades ago that they cannot speak their minds freely. Their words to the media have to be weighed with this thought constantly in mind: How might my answer be twisted to embarrass the church?

So as a few of the reporters asked potentially embarrassing questions, Elder Christofferson fielded them easily and pleasantly. He seemed to understand that even in Salt Lake City, reporters have to ask hard or tricky questions, if only to keep their self-respect among their peers. It would be too embarrassing for a Utah reporter to ask softball questions that might make him look like a public relations flack for the church.

My favorite question was when a reporter asked him, in effect, why he, a Utah-born English-speaking white guy, had been called instead of somebody more reflective of the church's worldwide membership.

To read the rest of Orson Scott Card's column on MormonTimes.com, please click here.

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