According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. Ill come get him. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. Gileadi, Toscano, Anderson, and Hanks were all excommunicated. He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. I have been taught a vision of a truly cooperative future where men and women are complete equals. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. Quinn argued against excommunication, he told me, but he did not have the final say. Bradley and Hanks are friends who trod a lot of common ground, Robertson said. 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. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. 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. . Peggy Fletcher Stack has been reporting on faith and religion since 1991. Daryl Peveto/Luceo Images for Slate. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. 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. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. The biggest thing that got me was the excommunication of bill reel segment of the Mormon stories podcast. Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. Quinns religious status wouldofficially, at leastbe decided by his own stake president, not by the higher-ups in Salt Lake City. 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. 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. 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 Religion Two decades after she was "exed," Utah writer still attends her LDS ward. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. Mormonism was as much an identity issue for them as it is for me. Anderson was excommunicated for an article she wrote in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought that described episodes of what she called ecclesiastical abuse of Latter-day Saint intellectuals. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. How did you find out about the impending disciplinary hearing? Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. ", Kelly goes on KUER's Radio West "A lot of people are asking me why I came forward [with the news of my disciplinary hearing]. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Nor does it read like one. 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 . Arrington). All rights reserved. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. 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. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. . I didn't have to look at the councilmen and wonder what they said about me. 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 will be published next year. 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. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. She was also the only one whose disciplinary council was overseen by her bishop, rather than her stake president. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. by Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) 06-23-2015. Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. 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. Quinn read Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. 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. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. 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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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. . 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. Some did not know that they were. They don't feel safe enough to keep going it's such a terrible, terrible loss. Quinn read fiction, too, including James Baldwins new book, Giovannis Room. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. "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 . He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. June 19, 2014 ; 1 of 9; 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. In the quarter-century since her ouster, Anderson consistently has attended weekly services at her Latter-day Saint congregation, the Whittier Ward. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. The Salt Lake Tribune . Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. 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. 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, my stake president called me in about it. In 2004, after a series of fellowships and visiting appointments, he was the only finalist for a tenured position at the University of Utah. I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. Disciplinary councils still happen, though they appear to be less frequent, particularly when it comes to apostasy. 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. 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. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com. From an early age, he felt within himself the presence of God, this burning of the spirit, as he says. A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. The movie was a live-action adaptation of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. But gradually, pressure on Mormon scholars eased, and today many write and publish without any obvious concern for what their stake presidents might think. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. 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. 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. Crucially, much of that project is onlinemore than anything, the Internet has revolutionized the field. I used to think Steve Benson was a bad person. On March 23, 2018, Andersons husband, Paul, died of heart failure. 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. I accuse that committee, England declared, of undermining our Church.. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. 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. 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. And he was the most strident of the group when it came to denouncing internal critics of Mormon leaders and teachings. 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. 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. Quinn refused. 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. They dont acquire these positions by filling out an application and sending in a rsum. Experts authenticated the letter, and Christensen, a devout Mormon, bought it from Hofmann, with plans to donate it to the church. Lavina Fielding Anderson may have been excommunicated from the LDS Church for apostasy more than 20 years ago, but don't think for a minute that this Utah writer is now an outsider to her faith. In the spring, he had published LDS Authority and New Plural Marriages, 18901904, the culmination of his interest in post-1890 polygamy, first prompted a quarter-century before by Family Kingdom. "We pray that a spirit of clemency will guide the words and actions of everyone especially those who bear the heavy responsibility of ecclesiastical discipline of church members and that the words of President [Dieter F.] Uchtdorf [second counselor in faith's governing First Presidency] will hold sway: "Regardless of your circumstances, your personal history, or the strength of your testimony, there is room for you in this church. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. [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. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. 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. Even after that, a few high-ranking Mormons continued to authorize such marriages. 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. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) 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. That was my decision. He visited these homes with his missionary companion and asked the boys if they still wanted to be Mormons. 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 . When something like [my excommunication] blows up, the first casualty is trust and that never comes back. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) Just go to . When I make comments in Sunday school and Relief Society, they are accepted as anyone else's. By Peggy Fletcher Stack and David Noyce Sep. 7, 2022 What this sociologist (Darron Smith) and Peggy Fletcher Stack fail to recognize is that Mormon racism isn't in the past, it's in the present. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. After organizing a massive campaign to pass Proposition 8 and make gay marriage illegal in California, for instance, the church suffered a massive backlash and has since appeared more tolerant toward gay rights activism. 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. And he based at least one of his forgeries on the work of Michael Quinn. "The issues in Mormon doctrine, history and practice highlighted by those facing church discipline are much larger than any one individual," the statement reads. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. 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. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. Within the past few years, Bradley had a change of heart and was rebaptized. I asked Quinn this past summer if he thought the provocations he penned as a historian might have been fueled on some level by his own inner conflict with Mormon teachingsif perhaps, unconsciously, he wanted to force a showdown with church authorities. And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. It struck him as an old missionarys trick. Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. He stinks.. disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. Salt Lake City Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the LDS Church for being a woman. Many people do reside in the borderlands between Mormon and not. By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. Hed read the essay about women and the priesthood, and he asked Quinn to speak on the subject at an upcoming fireside, an informal evening meeting often held at Mormon meetinghouses. I felt they were not going to drive me away. 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. 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. He subsequently has . After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. 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. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. 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. So she met with local and high Mormon leaders and, after several months, they set a baptismal date. 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. By the time Quinn arrived, the program had been disavowed, and many of these baptisms needed to be undone. If her reentry had been approved, Anderson would have been the third of the six the other five are Avraham Gileadi, Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, D. Michael Quinn, Paul Toscano and Maxine Hanks to be welcomed back into full fellowship with the Utah-based faith. 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. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. 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. By then, Quinn had more or less moved on. The president in 2012, when Hanks was readmitted, was Thomas S. Monson. 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. The accused is called in, another prayer is offered, and the court proceeds. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. 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. One of the central questions in the aftermath of Septembers events was just how involved Packer himself had been in them. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. 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. She currently serves on the . I heard she's not Mormon at all. 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. 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. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. Peggy Fletcher Stack was born and raised in New Jersey; studied at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California; traveled through Africa for two years with her news-photographer husband; and worked at Books and Religion in Manhattan before settling down as a religion writer at The Salt Lake Tribune. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church . No telephone call came., On Aug. 27, McLean delivered the First Presidency denial. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry..