Nobody Knows Religion Quite Like Peggy Fletcher Stack He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. 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. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. 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. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. My strong hunch is that she is a cultural Mormon who no longer believes, pays tithing or observes the WoW, and that she's loosey-goosey with her attendance. Excommunication Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster 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. Religion Two decades after she was "exed," Utah writer still attends her LDS ward. Quinn was so depressed by the experience that for a few weeks he lost his belief in God completely. 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. The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating, the worldwide effort to bring salvation to all of Gods children, Some things that are true are not very useful, LDS Authority and New Plural Marriages, 18901904, this growing conflict between leaders and intellectuals, Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood Since 1843, Quinns paper about the Baseball Baptism Program, the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the church, critical pieces he had written about Mitt Romney, Hanks described her path back to Mormonism, the administration caved to pressure from Ira Fulton. His hiring was vetoed by the ASU administration, and many observers believe the administration caved to pressure from Ira Fulton, a Mormon donor who between 2003 and 2006 gave at least $155 million to the school. Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return | Out of Obscurity Experts authenticated the letter, and Christensen, a devout Mormon, bought it from Hofmann, with plans to donate it to the church. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. Gileadi, Toscano, Anderson, and Hanks were all excommunicated. It went back to his college years. A forum for ex-mormons and others who have been affected by mormonism to get support and share news, commentary, and comedy about the Mormon church. Threat of Excommunication . Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. What's happening is so wrong. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. 'Mormon Land': A scholar who was excommunicated for his - MSN They dont acquire these positions by filling out an application and sending in a rsum. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". By then an assistant district attorney, Lambert later helped prosecute the case against Hofmann. 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. After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. The high council also heard from Andersons son, Christian, who offered his personal assessment. Robert Kirby does this also, but much more indirectly. 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. With his background in education, he became interested in how the church taught its own past, and decided he did not like what was going on at the church historians office. . They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Stack has received and been nominated for multiple awards. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. Timeline of teachings on homosexuality in the Church of Jesus Christ of No way. He wept as he read it aloud to others. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. The charge stems from Palmer's 2002 book, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, which challenges the traditional explanations of the faith's founding . By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. He loves cities, and when he lived in New Orleans in the early 90s, he made friends in bars and in an informal group of gay professionals who gathered once a month. News. All rights reserved. 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. Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. 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. Some did not know that they were. There were stretches of time when he was the only deacon, and he and I would exchange glances as he passed the sacrament to our row. Writer excommunicated during 'September Six' purge loses her bid to A Response to Peggy Fletcher Stack about OSF Finances And the Tribune is changing with it. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. I know how to avoid people I didnt want to be in contact with, he says. . On Sunday with similar church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin, Anderson discussed her spiritual journey: What triggered the LDS Church's disciplinary action against you? >Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity . Paul Toscanos sister-in-law was excommunicated for her writings about the Heavenly Mother, a controversial aspect of Mormon theology. Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. I go over the temple ceremony and the covenants in my mind and remake them before the Lord often. [3] She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. There is a peace that comes with that kind of clarity. Today, its Nelson, with a new counselor, Oaks, instead of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. At least, that's how Hall sees it. 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. 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. Hanks return predated the Ordain Women movement, which pushed for women to join the faiths priesthood, said Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Bowman, who heads the Mormon studies program at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California. But by the fall of 92 he had to return to Salt Lake City to finish research on the book, and he had grown tired of hiding from church authorities. He didn't seem to know what footnotes are so he thought I made the whole thing up. [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. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. He looked in the card catalog under pervert, which was the word his grandmother had used after he told her that another kid at church had been groping him. 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. All rights reserved. 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. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. 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. Quinn read Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. Leadership in Difficult Times: Critical Thinking and Wisdom (Part II) He froze. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . 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. (There is no conclusive evidence it took place, Quinn writes, but he does not dismiss the idea of one outright.) (They draw numbers to pick sides.) Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. All rights reserved. SCHOLAR REBAPTIZED INTO LDS CHURCH - Deseret News They never gave me one reason. He normalized what many call "sinful" behavior, by admitting to looking at nudie mags, drinking, smoking, and intimated other transgressions, yet still going on a mission. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. I admire her. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. September Six - Wikipedia 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. I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land, it says. 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. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. Before the first court, Whitesides and Anderson alerted friends and the press, and word spread quickly. And he was the most strident of the group when it came to denouncing internal critics of Mormon leaders and teachings. 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. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. The other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. 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. 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. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . 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. However, I do not see that eternal equality reflected in the contemporary church.". After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. A World of Faith: Stack, Peggy F., Peterson, Kathleen B.: 9781560851622 I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. Within the past few years, Bradley had a change of heart and was rebaptized. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. 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 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. 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. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. 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. 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. The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. After 20 years, this excommunicated Mormon still attends her LDS ward Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. Though he maintained a solemn belief in the Mormon gospel and in the sacrament partaken of by the faithful at Sunday services, he stopped attending church altogether. I always felt that I had Gods sanction and encouragement, so I went ahead following that path. Even early on, a fellow Mormon historian started telling Quinn he must have a death wish regarding his membership in the church. 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. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. 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 . These three shocks to Quinns testimonyabout the Book of Mormon, polygamy, and LDS theologyspurred a pursuit to unearth and understand those parts of his religions past that complicated the simpler story of the faith he had learned as a child. However, we believe that Latter-day Saints who are committed to the mission of their Church and the well-being of their fellow members will strive to be sensitive to those matters that are more appropriate for private conferring and correction than for public debate. There are times, they added, when public discussion of sacred or personal matters is inappropriate., The Statement on Symposia was another tear in the already fraying relationship between church leaders and scholars. 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. At its worst, such talk is sometimes called speaking evil of the Lords anointed.. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. 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. In May 1993, apostle Boyd K. Packer said the church's three greatest threats came from feminists, gays and intellectuals. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. 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. At Sunstone, Hanks described her path back to Mormonism as a heros journey, la Joseph Campbell. was pressured to resign from Brigham Young University and subsequently excommunicated from the faith in 1993 as part of the famed "September Six . Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. Vern Anderson wrote an AP story about the book, and several Utah papers carried reviews. He stinks.. It struck him as an old missionarys trick. In 1981, he gave an address to church educators called The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect, which was organized around four cautions. The second of them is this: There is a temptation for the writer or teacher of church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith-promoting or not. 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. A member of that sect told Quinn about a since renounced bit of theology once preached by Brigham Young, referred to as the Adam-God doctrine. Youngs notion, roughly speaking, was that God and Adam are one and the same. Saturday, February 22, 1997. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. June 17, 2014 8:59 pm . [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. 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. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. 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. If the blessing really happened, then Brigham Young, who led the early Mormons to Utah, might have been wrong to seize control of the church after Smiths murder. Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. I love John and I support him, but I have never made any claim against truth claims of the church. What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. She said hello, but he did not recognize her. He subsequently has . I love the church. I had my answers.". They don't feel safe enough to keep going it's such a terrible, terrible loss. If there is unfinished business, its the First Presidencys, not mine.. So she met with local and high Mormon leaders and, after several months, they set a baptismal date. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service - Page 5 of 6 Peggy Fletcher. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. Soon after, he happened to attend, with some friends, a meeting of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a splinter sect that believes Joseph Smiths son, not Brigham Young, was Smiths rightful successor as prophet. 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. 2) I would very gladly swap my OSF compensation package with any member of the LDS First Presidency, Quorum of the 12 Apostles, or 1st Quorum of the Seventy. 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. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. He moved back to Utah and began receiving mail at his actual address. 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.. LDS Church wants to light up a temple in a place that prides itself on dark skies, For husband-and-wife team, this new restaurant is the culmination of a decadeslong dream, article she wrote in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. That's a good question. 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. The essay, Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood Since 1843, cites writings by Joseph Smith and other early church documents to argue that women already possess much of the spiritual authority granted to men, and that todays LDS leaders simply fail to recognize this.
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