Hans Mattsson

Biography

Mattsson was raised in the LDS Church. As a young man he served as a missionary, as is common in the LDS Church, and was assigned to the Central British Mission headquartered in Birmingham, England. There he learned English, despite some difficulty, and felt his religious convictions grow. After returning to Sweden he married Birgitta, a convert to the Mormon faith, and they have five children.

Mattsson and his twin brother Leif both gained senior positions as leaders in the LDS Church. First Hans, then Leif, served as stake presidents in Gothenburg, Sweden. In April 2000, Hans became the first Swede to serve as an area authority. He held a secular job in technology marketing, but traveled widely in Europe at weekends, overseeing the church. He stood down from the position of area authority in April 2005 when he had heart surgery.

Members began asking Mattsson about criticisms that they had read on the Internet, including the many wives of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, the authenticity of the Book of Abraham, and the exclusion of black people from the priesthood until 1978. Mattsson was dissatisfied with the answers that he in turn received from the church's highest authorities in 2010, and in 2013 he publicized his own doubts on John Dehlin's Mormon Stories Podcast and in the New York Times, stating that "I don’t want to hurt the church … I just want the truth."

In 2013, Mattsson and his wife moved to Spain for health reasons.