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 had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . LDS bloggers issue statement of support More than 70 Mormon bloggers, representing a dozen or more websites, have signed a document, "Room for All in This Church," calling for "clemency" in the upcoming disciplinary councils for Kate Kelly and John Dehlin. Taking the sacrament because it's an exclusion I feel every single week. [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) "Mormon facing excommunication makes his living off his podcasts," by Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune, February 8, 2015 "On Attempts to Smear (i.e., Being 'Fair Gamed'") by John Dehlin ; Faith Transition episodes on Mormon Stories . 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. Hanks was accused of apostasy for editing an anthology, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, which included a discussion of the all-male priesthood and womens relationship to it. The four-day symposium, which begins Wednesday evening, also will include dozens of sessions about Mormonism and politics, about how members grapple with contemporary issues such as gay rights and feminism, building online LDS communities, Mormon Latino views of the church's immigration stance and how the Utah-based faith has developed its "brand" in the past several decades. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. We had a family devotional every night with prayer, singing and scripture reading. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. I assumed there was a way to work it out. June 19, 2014 ; 1 of 9; It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. 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. She studied "traditional, sacramental Christianity and priesthood," Hanks said this week. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. He asked Quinn to come see him in his office after work one day, Quinn says. Quinn read Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. No way. During the hiring process, a college dean offered to protect him, Quinn says, from those peoplethe LDS leadersup in Salt Lake., Before he could be hired, though, he had to visit LDS headquarters at 47 East South Temple in downtown Salt Lake and sit for an interview with one of those peoplespecifically, a general authority, one of the 100 or so men who run the church. 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. Some things that are true are not very useful. Its not clear whether Packer read Quinns work before interviewing him, but if he did, it probably would have struck him as less than useful. A Response to Peggy Fletcher Stack about OSF Finances Hanks worked for the Church Educational System, where Packer had long been an administrator, and Quinn heard that Loren C. Dunn, a friend of Packers and fellow general authority, had spoken to Hanks personally. The kindness of my ward members has been really important. He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. He subsequently has . 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. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. Today, LDS leaders seem more inclined to recognize, said Wotherspoon, now host of the "Mormon Matters" podcast, "that Zion is made up of people of all types. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service - Page 2 of 6 Woodruff himself said in his journal that he was acting for the temporal salvation of the church, and the 1890 Manifestoas his official statement is knownwas not immediately taken to be a divine revelation. (He also, as it happens, officiated at the wedding of my parents.) 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. Denver Snuffer . ", 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack / Salt Lake Tribune: High-ranking Mormon official, who twice spoke in General Conference, is excommunicated Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones. He decided that only 16 of the changes were significant. Believers in Denver Snuffer's Remnant movement gather in a Sandy, Utah, home for a fellowship meeting on Aug. 13, 2017, to sing songs and partake of the sacrament. 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. It had been a difficult year. The other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. When I make comments in Sunday school and Relief Society, they are accepted as anyone else's. A year later, David J. McLean, president of the Salt Lake Liberty Stake, reconvened a high council, a body that had excommunicated her 25 years and six months earlier for apostasy, Anderson wrote in a summary of her experience for a forthcoming volume of her essays, Mercy Without End: Toward a More Inclusive Church.. This is maybe where John and I are very different. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. By then an assistant district attorney, Lambert later helped prosecute the case against Hofmann. She was struck by how frail he appeared, and found herself feeling nothing but compassion and love for a man who had once seemed like an enemy. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. Quinn argued against excommunication, he told me, but he did not have the final say. 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. They never gave me one reason. Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. High-Ranking Mormon Official, is Excommunicated - Coercion Code He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. Peggy Fletcher was raised in New Jersey, daughter of physicist Robert Chipman Fletcher and Rosemary Bennett, one of five girls and three boys. She has participated as much as she was able playing the piano and singing in the choir and watched as seven lay bishops have come and gone. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. When Benson asked why no one had stopped him, Oaks allegedly replied, You cant stage manage a grizzly bear. Benson resigned his Mormon membership shortly afterward and became a vocal opponent of the church his grandfather ostensibly led. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. 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? Quinn told friends that he did not want anyone to lobby on his behalf. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service This new knowledge sent Quinn to the Journal of Discourses, a 26-volume collection of Mormon sermons. [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. 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. News. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. When Hanks showed up on Quinns doorstep in Salt Lake City that February, he brought a letter citing two of Quinns articles and a statement Quinn made to a reporter in 1991 as evidence that he was an apostate. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. 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. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. It's a way for me to participate and contribute, almost like having a calling. And he was the most strident of the group when it came to denouncing internal critics of Mormon leaders and teachings. . 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. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Peggy Fletcher Stack: How I report on Utah's changing faith landscape When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". 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. It's Judgment Day for Far Right: LDS Church Purges Survivalists I had never been treated as a liar before. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. While serving it in England, he was tasked with cleaning up the results of the Baseball Baptism Program, in which missionaries used sports to attract young converts. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. . When interviewing Quinn in 76, Packer said, I have a hard time with historians, because they idolize the truth. Person 2 Person: Peggy Fletcher Stack | KUTV disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. In 2004, after a series of fellowships and visiting appointments, he was the only finalist for a tenured position at the University of Utah. The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack, a . "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. In 1989, Dallin H. Oaks, the onetime law professor and BYU president who was now an apostle, had given a talk called Alternate Voices at the churchs semiannual General Conference. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. The movie was a live-action adaptation of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. Packers involvement mattered because the Twelve Apostles are considered by devout Mormons to be prophets, seers, and revelators. If they directed the councils, then the excommunications were, essentially, a message from the churchs highest spiritual authorities about what Mormons were allowed to do andpublicly, at leastto say. Anderson wrote another piece that was again picked up by multiple papers, including the Los Angeles Times, which ran it under the headline Mormons Investigating Him, Critic Says.. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. "Given who I was, there was no place to go but out," Hanks said in 2003, on the 10th anniversary of the excommunications. Quinn was so depressed by the experience that for a few weeks he lost his belief in God completely. I could listen to the spirit there. How did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grow so fast Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. Quinn was already on the alert for such wrinkles in the churchs history. My parents never blamed me, but they were heartbroken. However, I do not see that eternal equality reflected in the contemporary church.". And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. I see her articles on here all the time and the Tribune has never really been a friend to the TSCC. 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. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. 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. Bad marriages had women running to and away from . The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. 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. Looking back, it was a real blessing. The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. 'Mormon Land': A scholar who was excommunicated for his - MSN 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. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was not. 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. 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. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. The bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. Packer, the second-most senior among the 12, was the substitute president of the Quorum of the Twelve whenever Hunter was sidelined for medical reasons. She talks very vaguely when it comes to personal, specific spiritual beliefs and whether they align with doctrine, but she doesn't hesitate to call the church out on its shit at all. At Sunstone, Hanks described her path back to Mormonism as a heros journey, la Joseph Campbell. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. But he could no longer go to the temple. deductible, Report a missed paper by [email protected] calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or [email protected]. Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. All rights reserved. The noisy nonsense on-screen felt to Quinn like a rough equivalent of what the church was doing to him. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. Michael Quinns final disciplinary council was held on Sept. 26, 1993, in the Salt Lake Stake Center, the headquarters for the oldest stake in Utah, founded by Brigham Young in 1847. (Rick Bowmer/AP) This article is more than 8 years old. But he had a caring bishop that first year and decided on his own to serve a mission.
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