Where I See The LDS Church In 2030

The question was put:

"Where do you see the Church, the missionary force, temples and membership 20 years from now?

I see the Book of Mormon being renamed to "The Book Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints"

Just a thought. What do you see?"

To which I responded:

I'll go out on a limb and speculate for the year 2030:

1. The First Presidency and/or Quorum of the 12 will have issued some type of document designed to pacify the uproar over blacks being denied the priesthood in the past (it may be an outright apology, or it may be something less than that). Enough time will have passed that the old leaders who had previously supported the ban will have passed away.

2. There will be around 50,000 active missionaries.

3. There will be around 18 million members on the books, 17% of whom will hold temple recommends.

4. There will be around 200 temples.

5. Missionaries will be allowed in at least some predominatly Muslim countries which are presently closed off to missionary work.

As for other, more significant changes, I believe we are not likely to see them for another 60 to 150 years, including:

(1) Women being ordained to the priesthood and to church leadership positions;
(2) Consensual polygamy being permitted (both polygyny and polyandry) under certain circumstances;
(3) Homosexual relationships being permitted (they might not be called "marriage," but I suspect there may be unions "for time");
(4) Masturbation no longer being condemned;
(5) Sexual fantasies about people other than your spouse no longer receiving across-the-board condemnation;
(6) Members being permitted to openly disagree with official church stances while remaining in good standing;
(7) Prophetic pronouncements dealing much more directly with environmental sins such as pollution and environmental degradation;
(8) The Church getting more involved in humanitarian causes, such as vocal and public opposition to genocide, enslavement, corporate corruption, governmental corruption, torture, poverty, and wars wages for unjustified reasons such as greed;
(9) The Church opening up its historical archives to all scholarly research, whether performed by friends or critics of the Church;
(10) The Church acknowledging that Joseph Smith and other church leaders inserted at least some of their own personal ideas into their purported revelations.