Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. The institutional churchs position toward its intellectual community has shifted slowly and subtly but in real ways in the past 30 years; it is possible that there is a worry that allowing for her rebaptism would unearth battles the present First Presidency would like to let lie buried and spur a public relitigation of the issue., Secondly, the controversies surrounding Anderson had a great deal to do with feminism in the church and with ecclesiastical dissent, he said. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. ", Hanks is a "genuinely spiritual person and quite insightful, who brings a type of spirituality with her that will resonate with lots of people," he said. From an early age, he felt within himself the presence of God, this burning of the spirit, as he says. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. If those top leaders did not know where he lived, then they could not assign him to a particular stake, and his church membership could not be threatened. The most threatening thing about Ordain Women to people in the church is that it is coming from faithful, devout, courageous, wonderful women and that's more threatening than anything could be. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. Bradley and Hanks are friends who trod a lot of common ground, Robertson said. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. I heard she's not Mormon at all. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. [4] During her time there, she has met and interviewed the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Gordon B. Hinckley, among others. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. In it, Harris, who paid for the first printing of the Book of Mormon, tells a story of that books origins strikingly different from Smiths later, official account. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. Log In. When the men from the stake presidency came to his door in February, Quinn was living three blocks from the Salt Lake Temple and the worldwide headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 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. Paul's mother was great. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. (Quinn attempted to reach this friend through a third party before my piece was finished, but declined to give me his name before speaking to him.) He, the bishop, and the other counselor held the necessary courts, excommunicating those who wanted out. Feb 17. "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. 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. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. 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. The former LDS stake president, who oversaw a group of Mormon congregations in Tooele for eight years and worked as an architect on her faith's most sacred spaces, faced, in her mind, an impossible choice: Either return to living as a man or resign her . Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was not. 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. He never wrote another work of fiction. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. Religion Two decades after she was "exed," Utah writer still attends her LDS ward. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. This is maybe where John and I are very different. Where a skeptic sees convenience, a believer may see Gods hand. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry.. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . If you've picked up a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune in the last 26 years, you know Peggy Fletcher Stack's name. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. The meaning of EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. . Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. It will be published next year. Last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Speaking Tubes in the Household of Faith", "A Light Unto the World: Image Building Is Anathema to Christian Living", "From the Editors: Stretching Toward the Light", "From the Editors: A Failure to Communicate", "Church Historian: Evolution of a Calling", "Tales of a true believer: picking up faith along the way", "Books: Mormon Novels Entertain While Teaching Lessons", "Twenty Years Ago in Sunstone: Symbol and Promise", "Peggy Fletcher Stack: Happy 100th to my physicist father, who remains a truth seeker in science and faith", "Utahn who pioneered synthesized stereo sound will receive posthumous Grammy", "Despite Growth, Mormons Find New Hurdles", "Nobody Knows Religion Quite Like Peggy Fletcher Stack", "Religion Newswriters Association honors top religion reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2017 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Winners named in 2018 RNA Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence", "Journalism Awards - Winners and Articles", "The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Local Reporting: The Salt Lake Tribune Staff", "Religion Newswriters Association announces 2008 contest winners", "Religion Newswriters Association names winners of 2015 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2016 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "SL Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack wins top religion reporting prize for fifth year", "Dreams, Dollars, and Dr. Pepper: Allen Roberts & Peggy Fletcher Years (19781980)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peggy_Fletcher_Stack&oldid=1124718303, "Nation's Founders: How Religious Were They? In the summer of 1952, the late Sterling McMurrin, an eminent philosopher and writer, met with two LDS apostles to defend his theological views.With complete candor, McMurrin laid out for Elders Joseph Fielding Smith and Harold . Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and writing about the biblical oracle Isaiah's prophecies about our time has been rebaptized into the faith. With no regular income to speak of, Quinn moved into his mothers condo in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. While preparing for the retired Brigham Young University artists memorial service, Bishop Mahonri Madrigal read Pauls written testimony, or statements of faith, that the ward had compiled in 2000. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. Those 15 men oversee the multiple Quorums of the Seventy, who in turn direct the stake presidents and bishops who minister to congregations on a part-time, voluntary basis. The Salt Lake Tribune . During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. He asked Quinn to come see him in his office after work one day, Quinn says. Hanks was excommunicated in 1993, one of the "September Six," Mormon writers and scholars who were disciplined by their local LDS officials in the same month. Hanks became conciliatory, reading On Being a Mormon Historian, and writing to say hed gotten from it deeper insight into your devotion and your dedication to history and the Church. He asked again to meet when Quinn came back to Utah. That last comment became the caption for a Newsweek photo three months later, when the magazines religion reporter, Kenneth L. Woodward, wrote a 1,000-word story about Quinns talk and the controversy it prompted. He was housesitting. 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. This made some church leaders uneasy. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. [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. Press J to jump to the feed. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. They were eventually published, without Quinns permission, by two prominent anti-Mormon activists, Jerald and Sandra Tanner. In an April 1968 talk about military service, he described the restless, unchallenged young people who are repudiating their citizenship responsibilities by avoiding and protesting the draft. Many people do reside in the borderlands between Mormon and not. He contends that a former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had openly romantic feelings for men, and highlights a once hushed-up gay affair from the 1940s between a prominent church leader and a 21-year-old Mormon serving in the Navy. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. She was also the only one whose disciplinary council was overseen by her bishop, rather than her stake president. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. 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. At first, his timing appeared serendipitous: In 1972, while he was completing a masters in history at the University of Utah, an academic named Leonard Arrington was appointed church historian. 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. The high council also heard from Andersons son, Christian, who offered his personal assessment. 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. At least, that's how Hall sees it. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. My own name remains on the rolls of the church, and I plan to leave it there, though I stopped believing in the Mormon gospel 15 years ago. The main target of the statement, issued in August 1991, was the Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering started by Sunstone magazine 12 years before. sltrib.com. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. In 2001, a long-standing effort called the Joseph Smith Papers Project received additional funding and became a major draw to those who wished to study the early days of the church. It was the papers second article in two weeks about a series of church courts held across 13 days in September and reported in media outlets across the country. That higher-ranking leader, James Paramore, had further instructed West to say that the decision was Wests own, and had not come from above. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. Packers notion that those writing church history should share only those things that are faith-promoting is not just intellectually offensive nowit has become quaint, the relic of a time when information was not so freely available. He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. I did. The stake president, who oversees a number of congregations, remained optimistic, she said, zeroing in on the words, at this time., But the writer replied, Theres hope, and then theres experience., Besides, she said, it was a form letter.. I was removed from that situation. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. It took several hoursa vigil was held outside for the first few, with candles and hymns and hot chocolate. Few people had attended the talk itself, but an independent BYU newspaper ran a story about it, and copies of Quinns remarks, titled On Being a Mormon Historian, began to circulate. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Mormon church, he said, drew him out of his largely monastic life and compelled him to help the men and women he saw every Sunday. In his Yale dissertation, Quinn examined the highest leadership of the LDS church as a social elite, focusing on the extensive family ties within the hierarchy, the considerable wealth of Mormon authorities, and their long-standing involvement in politics. Quinn attended that ward in Westwood every week while he was in California. The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. He has occasionally attended other churches. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. West said hed been told by a higher authority to take further action to remedy the situation, Quinn says. That was my decision. She has sat quietly in the same pew as the emblems of the sacrament, or communion, have passed by her more than 1,200 times without being able to partake. 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. 2012. He was excommunicated in 1911. [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. [Husband] Paul, Christian [their son] and I sang in the choir that day. It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. 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. Article type . Caffeinated Version: The noisy nonsense on-screen felt to Quinn like a rough equivalent of what the church was doing to him. Hofmann eventually became, in the words of one expert, the most skilled forger this country has ever seen. For LDS leaders nervous about church history, he was a nightmare personified: a lying, murderous man hell-bent on embarrassing the religion while glorifying and enriching himself. We had a family devotional every night with prayer, singing and scripture reading. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. Like Quinn, hed first become interested in Mormon history when he learned that polygamy had gone on for years after its public abandonmenthe knew about this because his mothers parents were among the secret polygamists. [5], The Stacks traveled in Africa for a year,[5] then settled in New York City for five years,[1] where she worked as the editor of the Hastings Center Report while her husband attended film school. 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 . That's a good question. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . The fact that we keep going to church is a blessing. It was run by William O. Nelson, he said, once an assistant to Ezra Taft Benson who now reported to Boyd K. Packer. They dont acquire these positions by filling out an application and sending in a rsum. Then she was accused of apostasy for editing an anthology, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, which included a discussion of the all-male LDS priesthood and women's relationship to it. There, he tried other kinds of writing, thinking maybe hed put Mormon history behind him. A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 Nov. 2022 To that end, the power that Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger bring is their personal stories of defiance and excommunication. Maybe she wants to be, though. Whitesides says that Connie Chungs people asked her to take a hidden camera into her court. It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. They don't feel safe enough to keep going it's such a terrible, terrible loss. McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. 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. This year he completed the third and final volume in his trilogy on the Mormon hierarchy, which examines the churchs business and financial activities from 1830 to 2010. At least, that's how Hall sees it. 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. Many religions have strictures that establish who is in and who is out, but the Mormon church draws a brighter line than most. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. Quinn, who later assisted the police in their investigation, did not go home for several days. The Bible and the Book of Mormon, which depict flawed, human prophets, are, Quinn said, an absolute refutation of the kind of history Packer advocated. 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. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. And the Tribune is changing with it. I know how to avoid people I didnt want to be in contact with, he says. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . In 1981, Quinn was asked by the colleges chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, a national honor society for history students, to respond to The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect. He did not pull his punches. She declined. Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. Some, perhaps, simply regretted the bad press. His father was never Mormon: The son of Mexican immigrants, he changed his namethough never legallyfrom Daniel Pea to Donald Quinn, apparently wanting to escape his heritage as well as his poverty. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. . McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. 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. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. There is a peace that comes with that kind of clarity. 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. In hindsight, the purge of September 1993 looks like the last big push for a kind of control that LDS leaders will probably never have again. So she met with local and high Mormon leaders and, after several months, they set a baptismal date. But Robertson is especially pleased with the "Pillars" session. These are very sensitive and highly confidential and this is why I have not mentioned them before in writing. Hanks alluded to these matters in subsequent letters, but never explicitly said that he had Quinns sexuality in mind. 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. I assured him I did not. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". Once in a while such a case will hit the press. Oaks said Packer had met with Toscanos stake president, and acknowledged that this was a mistake. 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. Or a great one, if possible: Since childhood, Quinn had been told by his grandmother that someday he would be an apostle of the church. No telephone call came., On Aug. 27, McLean delivered the First Presidency denial. In the late 60s, he was called to preside over the churchs missionary efforts in New England, and moved with his family to Cambridge, Mass. Gileadi, a Hebrew scholar who got into trouble for unorthodox writings about the biblical Isaiah, was rebaptized within several years. The entry for perversion said See homosexuality, and he read all the available books in that categorynot a lot in a small public library in 1956, though fairly heady stuff for a 12-year-old: Kinseys Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, some Freud, some Havelock Ellis. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Lavina Fielding Anderson decided not to appear at her court, either, which took place at another Salt Lake meetinghouse a few days afterward. Hi, Peggy. There have always been dissidents in the Mormon ranksthe religion itself is one particularly dramatic dissent from the rest of Christian traditionbut a new community of Mormon intellectuals had coalesced in the 1960s and 70s. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. In 1975 Stack helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies, and steered it for its first eleven years. I could listen to the spirit there. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. He decided he would suppress that part of himself and be a good Mormon. 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. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. This new knowledge sent Quinn to the Journal of Discourses, a 26-volume collection of Mormon sermons. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. Kelly was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in June. She currently serves on the . At the time, he was grieving the death of his son, who had gone missing and was found weeks later hanging from a tree by an extension cord. By then an assistant district attorney, Lambert later helped prosecute the case against Hofmann. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. [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.
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