Years ago, Don Bradley, a longtime scholar of Mormon history, asked to have his name removed from LDS membership rolls when participation became uncomfortable. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. It was already, in the minds of some, a dangerous pursuit, and it had now become a deadly one, marred by fraud and riddled with errors. She's been covering religion for the paper since 1991 taking on a variety of topics, but mostly the LDS Church. Robert Kirby does this also, but much more indirectly. Quinn got hate mail. Peggy Fletcher Stack. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. But the cause didn't really matter because it was pretty clear that Elder [Boyd K.] Packer [of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles] was trying to send a message by targeting certain people, such as historians and feminists. In 1961, when Michael Quinn was a devout Mormon of 17, his best friends girlfriend gave him a copy of Family Kingdom, a biography of the one-time apostle John W. Taylor. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. Re: Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. He has occasionally attended other churches. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. He was excommunicated by the LDS Church in 2013 for refusing to cease publication of his 2011 book, Passing the Heavenly Gift which challenges many points of LDS orthodoxy. Stack has received and been nominated for multiple awards. That was established definitively in 1986 after Hofmann confessed to the murders of Christensen and Sheets as part of a plea to avoid the death penalty. The main target of the statement, issued in August 1991, was the Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering started by Sunstone magazine 12 years before. He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) All rights reserved. "The issues in Mormon doctrine, history and practice highlighted by those facing church discipline are much larger than any one individual," the statement reads. Hanks rejoined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February. Excommunication is a complicated and multi-layered process for sexual minorities in the church who choose to marry in a way that the church considers a "same sex" marriage. Quinn was already on the alert for such wrinkles in the churchs history. KRE/AMB END STACK In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. There would be quite a number of people in the Mormon community who would look unfavorably on that. Later that year, Quinn was recommended for a one-year appointment at Arizona State. The September Six were six members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who were excommunicated or disfellowshipped by the church in September 1993, allegedly for publishing scholarly work against or criticizing church doctrine or leadership. Snuffer was excommunicated. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) This is not entirely uncommon in Mormon culture, but Quinn took it sincerely to heart. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. By Peggy Fletcher Stack After an exhausting six-hour disciplinary hearing Sunday, Mormon leaders temporarily suspended Grant H. Palmer's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Dallin Oaks speaking at the General Conference in April 1989. During Quinns New Orleans years, the First Presidency put out a statement discouraging Mormons from participating in academic conferences and other independent forums devoted to the discussion of their faith. After reading Peggy Fletcher Stack's article (linked in April's post), I realized that many of us share Lavina's ongoing concerns, including the exclusion of women from institutional authority and the side-stepping of the Heavenly Mother doctrine. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. These men are often referred to by Mormon faithful as the Brethren. Unlike local lay leaders, who hold secular day jobs and perform their ecclesiastical duties on a voluntary basis, they are full-time employees who oversee the global operations of the church. I love the gospel. Nowadays, anyone can Google Mormon polygamy and learn more than theyd ever need to know about that practice, about its abandonment, the subsequent fallout, and so on. 1511: Mormon Stories Transparency Q&A for Peggy Fletcher Stack and Tony He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. There is a peace that comes with that kind of clarity. Right next to Pauls was Lavinas description of her beliefs in Jesus Christ, Mormon founder Joseph Smith, the scriptural text he produced, The Book of Mormon, and the role of prophets. Most memorably, Harris says that the spirit who appeared to Smith and directed him to the golden platesfrom which Smith claimed to have translated Mormonisms founding scriptureappeared as a white salamander and struck Smith three times. We had been home about 20 minutes when two high counselors came to our house and delivered a letter, inviting me to a disciplinary hearing two weeks from that day. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. He said it was apostasy because I believed that general authorities had done something wrong. The kindness of my ward members has been really important. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. It's Judgment Day for Far Right: LDS Church Purges Survivalists Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. An Excommunication, And The Future Of The Church Of Jesus Christ - WBUR [15], Stack wrote a children's book about religion with artist Kathleen B. Petersen, entitled A World of Faith, published in 1998.[4][16]. He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. Quinn studied English literature in collegehe attended BYUbut during his three-year stint in the military he decided to become a historian, and make what had become a consuming pastime into his profession. He took a fellowship at the Huntington Library, near his hometown of Pasadena, Calif., and began indexing his enormous collection of notes on old Mormon documents, in preparation for his next book. Later he was told that despite his request that no one speak for him, a friend had attended and done just that, playing recordings of Quinns presentations at past Sunstone Symposia and reading excerpts from his writings. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. Quinn was convinced, in any case, that his fate in any disciplinary council was predetermined, that Boyd K. Packer wanted him out of the church and Hanks was going to make it happen. He rejected the idea that his writings and his comments to reporters about Mormon history warranted disciplinary action, and he had come to a kind of peace about what he was sure awaited him. But multiple faculty members argued that, in the words of one professor, Mike was not the right person to head up any kind of Mormon history or Mormonstudies program given the fact hes very publicly excommunicated. Some, perhaps, simply regretted the bad press. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. Lavina Fielding Anderson, one of the famed September Six writers and scholars disciplined by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1993, got a big no last week to her request for rebaptism from the men who matter most: the faiths governing First Presidency. However, I do not see that eternal equality reflected in the contemporary church.". Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. In 1981, he produced a blessing allegedly given by Joseph Smith to his son Joseph Smith III, declaring him my successor in the Presidency of the High Priesthood. The document was partly inspired, it appears, by The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844, which refers to such a blessing. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. Part of what I feel is a calling to be there. He turned 65 two years later, making him eligible for Social Security and Medicare. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. In 2004, after a series of fellowships and visiting appointments, he was the only finalist for a tenured position at the University of Utah. No telephone call came., On Aug. 27, McLean delivered the First Presidency denial. He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. Arrington). Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. More painfully, as a high councilor in a Utah stake several years later, Quinn was part of courts prompted by personal sinsuch as engaging in homosexual acts. At Yale, while serving as one of two counselors to the local bishop, he found unanswered letters in the wards files from people who wished to leave the church. Former Mormon leader is building a new life _ as a woman Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. . At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. June 17, 2014 8:59 pm . This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. There he told a story about the time Packer embarrassed him in front of fellow church leaders as apparent payback for a slight from six years before. And he was the most strident of the group when it came to denouncing internal critics of Mormon leaders and teachings. No way. Quinn was so depressed by the experience that for a few weeks he lost his belief in God completely. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. It sent him down a rabbit hole. . Paul's mother was great. Just before his excommunication, in the spring of 1993, Quinn bore his testimony at the singles ward he was attending each week in Westwood, near UCLA. Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. If Peggy wanted to do some groundbreaking . Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? c. 2014 Salt Lake Tribune(RNS) The Mormon Church insists that excommunication threats targeting activists Kate Kelly and John Dehlin were generated by their respective LDS leaders in Virginia and northern Utah.Others see the timing as evidence that the two disciplinary hearings are being coordinated from the faith's Salt Lake City headquarters.But this much is certain: If Mormon higher-ups . Former Mormon leader is building a new life -- as a woman - Rick Alan Ross Then he made copies of his letter and Hanks letter and dropped them off at the offices of Vern Anderson and Peggy Fletcher Stack, a former Sunstone editor who had become a religion reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. She has been visited by all her ward and stake leaders since 1993, she said, but this was the first time anyone had ever proposed it. After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. When he came to understand this aspect of himself, and learned a name for it, he did what was already typical of him at that age: He went to the library. Her explorations gave Hanks a new level of understanding and "testimony" of Mormonism. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] That was my decision. Woodwards piece, headlined Apostles vs. Historians, called Quinns talk a stirring defense of intellectual integrity that had put Benson and Packer on the defensive. It was illustrated with a large photograph of Quinn up top, and a considerably smaller one of Packer. He himself did not even stay in town. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". Mormonism was as much an identity issue for them as it is for me. In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. Paul usually sits on the outside of the pew, so when the sacrament comes, he shakes his head toward me so we don't have any socially embarrassing moments. [5] They moved to Utah in 1991 when she was hired to be the religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune, where much of her reporting has focused on the LDS Church. Taking the sacrament because it's an exclusion I feel every single week. [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. Following the wave of media attention that greeted the September excommunications, the First Presidency defended what had taken place. She embodies, more than anyone else I know, the ideal of a broken heart and contrite spirit, which has influenced me so strongly that I, the last time I checked, was one of only two of the 21 children of the September Six who is still an active member.. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. In Mormon history circles, this period is often called the Camelot years., After those 18 months, Quinn left for Yale to do a Ph.D. and finished it in just three years. Just prior to reading Family Kingdom hed seen an anti-Mormon pamphlet called The Book of Mormon Examined, which highlighted hundreds of changes Joseph Smith made to the Mormon scripture in its first few printings. He also mentioned reading Quinns long Dialogue article about the politics of Ezra Taft Benson. 'Mormon Land': A scholar who was excommunicated for his - MSN He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. Some did not know that they were. This made some church leaders uneasy. After 20 years, this excommunicated Mormon still attends her LDS ward Last month, for instance, the Daily Beast reported that a blogger named David Twede was facing excommunication because of critical pieces he had written about Mitt Romney. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. I didn't have to look at the councilmen and wonder what they said about me. By the time Quinn arrived, the program had been disavowed, and many of these baptisms needed to be undone. Where else would I be but in the church? The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. He developed a fervent testimony not only that God exists but that God spoke to Joseph Smith face to face and that the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants are, like the Old and New Testaments, divinely inspired. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 16, 2015 SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) John Dehlin, known to support same-sex marriage and the Ordain Women movement, said he expects "either disfellowshipment (i.e . While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. Peggy Fletcher Stack (@religiongal) / Twitter The stake president, a man named Paul Hanks, tried to step into the apartment as he said hello, Quinn recalls. I wrote an article for "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought" that summarized 133 cases of LDS ecclesiastical abuse, and my pleas to do better to care for the Mormon faithful. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. A World of Faith: Stack, Peggy F., Peterson, Kathleen B.: 9781560851622 They never gave me one reason. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. In the past, many Mormon officials had a sense, he said, that the church must protect its members from "wolves among them.". There was no process for voluntary withdrawal from the Mormon Church in the 1960s, so each of these kids had to be excommunicatedtechnically, for apostasy. It went back to his college years. It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. She said she was really angry at the church, not at me. Whitesides says that Connie Chungs people asked her to take a hidden camera into her court. Ultimately, the events of September 1993 may have helped broaden those borderlands, encouraging other members of the faith to openly question Mormon orthodoxy without entirely leaving the religion behind. If he doesnt, I have his phone number and I know where he lives. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for . I did the very best I knew how to do, the thing that I felt was the right thing to do., Donate to the newsroom now. disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. At the conference, he spoke about the history of same-sex relationships in the church and the shifting attitudes toward them on the part of Mormon leaders. . So she met with local and high Mormon leaders and, after several months, they set a baptismal date. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. They didn't say anything. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. News. By declining to talk with any priesthood leaders, he wrote, you are cutting yourself off from the blessings of the Temple and the blessings of the priesthood. He insinuated that the churchs problems with Quinn were not all theological. That higher-ranking leader, James Paramore, had further instructed West to say that the decision was Wests own, and had not come from above. He was housesitting. All rights reserved. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. The demographics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include statistical data relating to the church's population and particular groups within it.. In the early 90s, when he was living in New Orleans, Quinn, nearing his 50th birthday, tried his hand at fiction, going back to the literature he once studied as an undergraduate. She was upset that he was not attending church, and so he drove 45 minutes to a singles ward, a Mormon congregation specifically for unmarried adults, near UCLA. Find your friends on Facebook. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. It will be published next year. Quinn was an ordinance worker, meaning he went to the temple regularly and helped others perform those rites. False Prophet Gaining Steam Among a 'Remnant' Church But gradually, pressure on Mormon scholars eased, and today many write and publish without any obvious concern for what their stake presidents might think. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. There are three areas where members of the church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away, declared Boyd K. Packer, one of the churchs Twelve Apostles, in May 1993. Hundreds of other members joined him at gatherings and in small groups, and thus was born the "remnant movement ," which today touts 1000s of adherents. Peggy Fletcher Profiles | Facebook Peggy Fletcher Stack has been reporting on faith and religion since 1991. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. In 1975 Stack helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies, and steered it for its first eleven years. Her sincere belief in Jesus and determination to follow him no matter the adversity faced within or without the church should be commended, and this good and faithful servant should be rewarded, he wrote. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. Mike Quinn in his Rancho Cucamonga home in California this summer. But it was a forgery. We were sitting in the front room of a house owned by a gay couple he knows in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Salt Lake City. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. The church's definition of "membership" includes all persons who were ever baptized, or whose parents were members while the person was under the age of eight (called "members . On Tuesday morning, James J. Hamula was released from his position in the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after disciplinary Quinn refused. "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. [3][4][5] She was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), with her father traveling and speaking as a member of the stake high council. Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return | Out of Obscurity Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. The modern Mormon church has become a fairly top-down organization, but most responsibility for attending to its members still resides in local lay leaders. Quinns mother, on the other hand, was a sixth-generation Mormon: She had an ancestor who converted when the Mormons were still in Nauvoo, Ill., and who is mentioned in Joseph Smiths journals. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. I had never been treated as a liar before. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. It really hurt my feelings. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry.. Gileadi was not part of the Sunstone and Dialogue circles that the others moved in; he had been writing and teaching popular workshops about biblical and Book of Mormon prophecies, which appear to have been deemed false doctrine by LDS leaders. He was the first academic to occupy the post, previously held only by high-ranking LDS leaders, and his appointment signaled a broader effort to reorganize the historians office along professional lines.
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