common denominator is made even trickier by the relationship between the church’s older and newer memberships.

The areas of the church which are losing members due to cultural issues related to history, gender and sexuality are the wealthy, developed areas in the global north (including, in a very imprecise way, the British-influenced societies of Australia and New Zealand), and the areas where the church is gaining members are the poor, undeveloped areas in the global south.

The wealth and leadership resources of the northern church directly support the southern church. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, young people’s missionary service is subsidized. They spend their time as missionaries living in greater luxury than they may ever experience again. The southern church gives credence to Mormonism’s claims of global relevance.Northern missionaries serve in the south and spend their years living amongst conditions of poverty and deprivation which they may never experience again.

So the north and the south need each other, and exist in a delicate symbiotic balance. It is tricky because the membership in the global south is more patriarchal, more accepting of strict gender roles, and less accepting of sexual minorities, while the membership in the global north is moving in precisely the opposite direction…

So what will hold us together? In recent years, the central church leadership heavily emphasized “family.” But strengthening the family in certain parts of North America entails a different set of problems and solutions from strengthening the family in, say, parts of Africa or the Pacific. One set of pro-family prescriptions does