Ultimately, the events of September 1993 may have helped broaden those borderlands, encouraging other members of the faith to openly question Mormon orthodoxy without entirely leaving the religion behind. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . 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. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. I did. 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. Log In. That bright line is one of the reasons Mormons still sometimes seem separate from the mainstream of American life even after a century of assimilation. Stack is an advisor on religion to the Public Broadcasting Service,[2] and has written two books. 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. Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. When they did, Quinn, an only child, would go to his room, put on a classical record, and turn the volume up. Instead, he simply took away Quinns temple recommend. Temples, distinct from regular meetinghouses, are reserved for sacred rituals, and require a recommend, a small card indicating ones worthiness, to enter. 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. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. 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. 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. Especially considering that in a lot of cases she's the one doing the exposing My guess is she's a let's-reform-this-baby-from-within progressive. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. 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. Many of the shifts in the church administration's position toward intellectuals recently has had to do with history and intellectual openness, while the issues driving Lavinas excommunication are still very much alive and unresolved today., It is possible, Bowman posits, there was fear that allowing for her rebaptism would send a signal on those issues that the First Presidency did not wish to send.. He went to San Diego to give the keynote address for the annual conference held by Affirmation, a support group for gay and lesbian Mormons, and he stayed in California for several days afterward. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry.. That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. In September, Hanks wrote Quinn another letter, saying that he had listened, twice, to a recording of Quinns paper about the Baseball Baptism Program, delivered at the Sunstone Symposium that summer. Whats more, all Mormons are supposed to have a calling in the church, which makes for a wonderfully participatory religion but also discourages casual membership. My parents never blamed me, but they were heartbroken. By Chris Jorgensen and Peggy Fletcher Stack The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is purging hundreds of Mormon dissidents who church officials say are preoccupied unduly with Armageddon. 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. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. 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. 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. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. 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. They dont acquire these positions by filling out an application and sending in a rsum. One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. They had the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the church, they said, adding that, because Mormon leaders are constrained by confidentiality rules, the media have relied on information supplied by those disciplined or by their sympathizers. Similar councils occurred more sporadically over the next few years. Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. Just go to . Quinn was so depressed by the experience that for a few weeks he lost his belief in God completely. 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. ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. While such a calling does not officially confer infallibility on the man who receives itand the general authorities are all malepublicly criticizing the men in these positions is strongly discouraged. 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. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. 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. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. Peggy Fletcher. News. Quinn read Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 16, 2015 SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) John Dehlin, known to support same-sex marriage and the Ordain Women movement, said he expects "either disfellowshipment (i.e . Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. I hate him. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017 . Mystery! 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Fixed: Release in which this issue/RFE has been fixed.The release containing this fix may be available for download as an Early Access Release or a General Availability Release. He revised the story occasionally over the next decade, submitting it unsuccessfully to the Paris Review and the Atlantic. 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. They never gave me one reason. Born in 1924 in Brigham City, Utah, the 10th of 11 children, Packer worked for years as a teacher and administrator in the Church Educational System. As a Mormon, he also knew that same-sex attraction was considered unfortunate at bestsomething to be struggled with, and, if possible, overcome. Though the letter from the current First Presidency made up of church President Russell M. Nelson and counselors Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring offered no explanation for the rejection, Bowman speculates that there may be at least two possible answers history and dissent. By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. She said hello, but he did not recognize her. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. Grant, an LDS Church president, a granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah, Wallace F. Bennett, and a granddaughter of American physicist Harvey Fletcher. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. 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. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. Bradley and Hanks are friends who trod a lot of common ground, Robertson said. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. My dad was a bishop twice. I didn't have to look at the councilmen and wonder what they said about me. West did not formally revoke the recommend, he just put it in his drawer. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. He has not been since. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. Today, its Nelson, with a new counselor, Oaks, instead of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. 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. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. 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. That, in any case, was his thinking. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. She was the editor of Hastings Center Report from 1986 until 1991, when she was hired to start the "Faith" column in the Salt Lake Tribune. 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? The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. We appreciate the search for knowledge and the discussion of gospel subjects, the First Presidency said. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. 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. Hankswhose nephew Paul would show up on Quinns doorstep in 1993was himself a general authority, and he had overseen the two-year Mormon mission Quinn served in England after his freshman year at BYU. Gileadi, a Hebrew scholar who got into trouble for unorthodox writings about the biblical Isaiah, was rebaptized within several years. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. 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. Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. 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. That's a good question. 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. Feb 17. [14] Along with five other reporters, she won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 in the Local Reporting category for a series of stories about sexual assault victims at BYU. "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. At Yale, while serving as one of two counselors to the local bishop, he found unanswered letters in the wards files from people who wished to leave the church. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. In 1975 Stack helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies, and steered it for its first eleven years. ", 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]. 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. He didn't seem to know what footnotes are so he thought I made the whole thing up. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. The day before, a similar bomb had killed Steve Christensen, a friend and Mormon history enthusiast who had arranged for Quinn to speak at lunch and dinner engagements, paying him with generous gift cards to his fathers clothing store. I don't think I could have done that graciously. In 1999, she joined the Interfaith Roundtable for the 2002 Winter Olympics, where she enjoyed the association of representatives from various faiths and led the annual Interfaith Week. This friend, Quinn says, told him that the men on the council disagreed about whether Quinn was an apostate, and that President Hanks finally declared that Boyd K. Packer was pressing him to take action, and they needed to do something. Denver Snuffer . This has been intentional. From that point on, she explored various Christian teachings and practices, assisted clergy with religious services and served as volunteer chaplain at Holy Cross Chapel for 13 years. He had also just published an article titled The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844, which detailed the confusion about who should succeed Joseph Smith after his assassination. All rights reserved. I was removed from that situation. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. 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. She embodies, more than anyone else I know, the ideal of a broken heart and contrite spirit, which has influenced me so strongly that I, the last time I checked, was one of only two of the 21 children of the September Six who is still an active member.. I might have lost my soul, but at least I still have my mind. Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.". Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. I had my answers.". Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. 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. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. 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. Quinn got hate mail. But the Churchs case against Twede will never be known: After the Daily Beast story, the council was postponed, and a few weeks later, Twede resigned from the faith. Two of the so-called "September Six" have found their way back into the LDS fold while Anderson though never rebaptized in some ways has never left. All rights reserved. At its worst, such talk is sometimes called speaking evil of the Lords anointed.. Peggy Fletcher. 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. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. Before the first court, Whitesides and Anderson alerted friends and the press, and word spread quickly. All rights reserved. This made some church leaders uneasy. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. West said hed been told by a higher authority to take further action to remedy the situation, Quinn says. In the first few days after the bombings, several people who had come into contact with Hofmann feared for their lives. 9:30AM EDT 8/29/2017 Peggy Fletcher Stack/RNS. 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. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. People named Peggy Fletcher. The meaning of EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. Hanks rejoined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February. 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. When he came to understand this aspect of himself, and learned a name for it, he did what was already typical of him at that age: He went to the library. Quinn and four othersLavina Fielding Anderson, Maxine Hanks (a distant relative of Paul Hanks, the stake president who showed up at Quinns apartment), Paul Toscano, and Avraham Gileadiwere excommunicated by stake presidents in Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah; a sixth, Lynn Whitesides, was disfellowshipped, meaning that she remained a member of the church but could not fully participate in its rites and activities. 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. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack. Peggy Fletcher. I accuse that committee, England declared, of undermining our Church.. 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. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. [3] She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. They were receptive. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . Whitesides says that Connie Chungs people asked her to take a hidden camera into her court. They were eventually published, without Quinns permission, by two prominent anti-Mormon activists, Jerald and Sandra Tanner. It is also worth noting that the church president in 1993 was an ailing Ezra Taft Benson. In October, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that a threatening phone call had been made to the home of a local man named Michael D. Quinn. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. 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. I just feel such heartache that the church I love is doing this to people who are sincere and trying to find ways of being Mormon and express their love of the gospel. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. I attended the Sunstone Symposium this past summer, held on the University of Utah campus, and many people I spoke to there said that as Packers influence has waned, a more tolerant approach to dissent is taking hold. The book he was finishing, which would be published in 1994, was called The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. That has been a blessing truly fulfilled. The Mormon church holds two different kinds of disciplinary councils: a more elaborate process that is often reserved for those who hold the Melchizedek priesthoodgenerally speaking, all devout adult menand a simpler process mostly used for those who dontmeaning women and men who have not advanced far in the church. My searching was complete. 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 recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. 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. disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. 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. And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. Hanks officially came back into the fold in 2012. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. In both forms of LDS courts, the accused is typically allowed to bring in character witnesses. During Quinns college years, BYUs president, Ernest Wilkinson, organized a student spy ring intended to catch out professors with communist leanings. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. 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. This is maybe where John and I are very different. She currently serves on the . 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. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. He subsequently has . Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. 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. The bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. 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. 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. We had stake [regional] conference in September. The accused is called in, another prayer is offered, and the court proceeds. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings.