Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. On the Sunday it was held, Quinn went to a movie theater in downtown Salt Lake and bought a ticket for the first screening he could find, to take his mind off the disciplinary council. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. Dallin Oaks speaking at the General Conference in April 1989. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. The men at his door were the local stake president and his two counselors, the men responsible for overseeing all the congregations in the area. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. Following the wave of media attention that greeted the September excommunications, the First Presidency defended what had taken place. Paul Toscanos sister-in-law was excommunicated for her writings about the Heavenly Mother, a controversial aspect of Mormon theology. He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. 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. Hed better start keeping it to himself. She declined. He went to stay instead with an old college friend, Richard Lambert. Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for . [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. Down in Provo, Avraham Gileadi met more quietly with his local leaders. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) My searching was complete. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. In her paper, she mentioned an internal espionage system that creates and maintains secret files on members of the church. A BYU literature professor named Eugene England rose to speak as soon as Anderson finished. The other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, nearly fainted waiting for the Dalai Lama, fasted with Muslims during Ramadan and has reported on 50 consecutive semiannual LDS General Conferences. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. He hopes that eventually hell manage to sell the condo and will get enough money for it that he could move back to New Orleans and live there for the last couple decades, God willing, of his life. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. When he went into his office, the bishop, a man named Tom Andersen, said hed read this article in the L.A. Times, Quinn told me. The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack, a . One theory on that first day of panic was that the bombings were connected with the business, an investment company called CFS. I was removed from that situation. Box 15 miles from where he was staying, and in New Orleans he had it delivered to a receiving center a little ways from his apartment. Dubbed the September Six, the group were mostly left-leaning writers and scholars who had published articles or given talks about the role of women in Mormonism and the way the churchs leaders handle dissent. 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 got hate mail. Ive had more than one therapist Ive talked to about this issue say, Dont you see that you were purposely setting yourself up for this fall? he told me. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. He froze. 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. 1897 - First Presidency member George Q. Cannon used the media attention on the 1895 conviction and two-year imprisonment of famed Irish poet Oscar Wilde as an opportunity to pu Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. ", Kelly writes in London's Guardian newspaper "For me it is because of my faith and not in spite of it that I have a desire to stand up for myself and my sisters. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. These dangers, Packer said, were the relatively new feminist and gay-lesbian movements, and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals.. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. I have been doing that for 18 years. One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. One of the articles came from an anthology called Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, edited by Maxine Hanks, a distant relative of Pauland his uncle Marionand, soon, one of the September Six herself. Maybe she wants to be, though. Whats more, all Mormons are supposed to have a calling in the church, which makes for a wonderfully participatory religion but also discourages casual membership. TV and newspaper reporters came. Dear Reader: When I began this series of essays on leadership, I never anticipated the final installment would chronicle recent events that have triggered the biggest spiritual struggle of my life. The LDS archives became more open to scholars than ever before, and Arrington oversaw research and writing by fellow academics and graduate studentsincluding Quinn, then 28, whom he hired as an assistant. Some did not know that they were. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. 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. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Sign Up. She currently serves on the . Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. Quinn read fiction, too, including James Baldwins new book, Giovannis Room. But nothing else has driven him to contribute to the lives of others the way the faith in which he was born and raised once did. Quinns polygamy essay, meanwhile, produced more trouble for him with LDS leaders. It struck him as an old missionarys trick. Vern Anderson wrote an AP story about the book, and several Utah papers carried reviews. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. He insisted that the September councils were local affairs, but church employees who reported to him had, it turned out, been keeping tabs on the six who were disciplined, and rumors swirled that Packer himself personally insisted that the courts take place. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. He was troubled by the openness with which materials were being made available to certain individuals other than those authorized, according to Lucile C. Tates admiring 1995 biography, Boyd K. Packer: Watchman on the Tower. Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. That's a good question. . Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. Would love to hear your stories about her. The field has grown and appears to have moved on, even though the research that Quinn did, and the fights that he picked, were crucial to what has come in his wake. 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. . It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. Bad marriages had women running to and away from . Hymns were sung. 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. The temple president tried to make it as good an experience as he could for my parents, Paul, Christian and Marina [his bride] and me. [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. Many of the shifts in the church administration's position toward intellectuals recently has had to do with history and intellectual openness, while the issues driving Lavinas excommunication are still very much alive and unresolved today., It is possible, Bowman posits, there was fear that allowing for her rebaptism would send a signal on those issues that the First Presidency did not wish to send.. Ill come get him. 9:30AM EDT 8/29/2017 Peggy Fletcher Stack/RNS. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. . Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. 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 . sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. My parents never blamed me, but they were heartbroken. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. Press J to jump to the feed. Quinns religious status wouldofficially, at leastbe decided by his own stake president, not by the higher-ups in Salt Lake City. I had never been treated as a liar before. She did, however, tell her leaders her concerns about church exclusion policies: barring worthy LGBTQ couples who are legally married from full participation; blocking worthy and righteous women from the male-only priesthood; and keeping Mother in Heaven from her place in our understanding.. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. In what dissidents have described as a purge, church leaders took severe disciplinary action in September against six Mormon scholars and feminists, the New York Times reported on Oct. 2, 1993. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. 2012. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) I have kept my covenants, remained close to the church and have felt that what I have done is accepted by the Lord, the Salt Lake City editor and writer said. That came out in early 1993. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. I had received a blessing from a former stake president, assuring me that when the time was right, it would come very easily, so I could be at peace. Later that evening, having dinner alone, he felt a new sense of relief about what had happened so far and what he believed was about to happen. I love Jesus. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. Log In. Boyd Packer, left, and Dallin Oaks, right, Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wait for the start of the first session of the 181st Semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Experts authenticated the letter, and Christensen, a devout Mormon, bought it from Hofmann, with plans to donate it to the church. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) That higher-ranking leader, James Paramore, had further instructed West to say that the decision was Wests own, and had not come from above. Quinn was already on the alert for such wrinkles in the churchs history. 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. Quinn wrote back more harshly this time, listing all the things Hanks had done that troubled him. Instead, he simply took away Quinns temple recommend. Temples, distinct from regular meetinghouses, are reserved for sacred rituals, and require a recommend, a small card indicating ones worthiness, to enter. In both forms of LDS courts, the accused is typically allowed to bring in character witnesses. Hanks told him he had been excommunicated, and said that the court lasted six hours. By the time Quinn arrived, the program had been disavowed, and many of these baptisms needed to be undone. 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 . He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. Hebrew scholar Avraham Gileadi has been rebaptized into the LDS Church after being excommunicated for apostasy along with five other writers and scholars in September 1993. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for rebaptism into the LDS Church rejected by the faith's governing First Presidency after being approved by her local lay leaders. All rights reserved. And the Tribune is changing with it. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? Peggy Fletcher Stack. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. That has been a blessing truly fulfilled. Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.".