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 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. 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. Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" Again, I'm reminded of a scene in "Schindler's List" where the That higher-ranking leader, James Paramore, had further instructed West to say that the decision was Wests own, and had not come from above. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. 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. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. I didn't have to look at the councilmen and wonder what they said about me. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. He went to stay instead with an old college friend, Richard Lambert. The timing of his career, which once appeared serendipitous, now seems almost cruel. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. 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. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. 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. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. 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. The most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. 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. I heard she's not Mormon at all. 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. Paul Toscanos sister-in-law was excommunicated for her writings about the Heavenly Mother, a controversial aspect of Mormon theology. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. Two years later, he was called as an apostle. 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. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. 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. "She might be a model for others who have been missing their Mormon community.". 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. 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. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. 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. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. He said it was apostasy because I believed that general authorities had done something wrong. Stack has received and been nominated for multiple awards. 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. 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. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack. I used to think Steve Benson was a bad person. Vern Anderson wrote an AP story about the book, and several Utah papers carried reviews. 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. It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. "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 . Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. 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. 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. 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. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. Log In. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. The Strengthening Church Members Committee almost certainly passed along notes about Quinn to his new stake president, Paul Hanks, in early 1993. [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. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. In 1988 he resigned his position at Brigham Young University, the private college owned and operated by the Mormon church, having decided that his interest in the problem areas of the religions past jeopardized not only his position on the history faculty but his membership in the church itself. Salt Lake City Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the LDS Church for being a woman. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. 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. He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. 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. After Paul Toscano was excommunicated, Steve Benson, grandson of the then Mormon prophet, met privately with the apostles Dallin H. Oaks and Neal A. Maxwell, and asked them aboutamong many other thingsthe rumor that Packer had something to do with it. The latter, a smaller school, offered less money, but BYU had its own drawbacks: It was and is a conservative place, politically as well as religiously. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. See Photos. 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. 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. Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. Not long before Hofmann sold that forged document, he approached Quinn in the church archives, and asked about the succession crisis and the article. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. Sometimes Stack refers to Salt Lake City . 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. In California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. For her part, Anderson always has felt a great sense of peace that I made a moral decision, an ethical decision, a decision of integrity and conscience, she wrote. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. I had my answers.". Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. If Peggy wanted to do some groundbreaking . [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 he could no longer go to the temple. It was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. My parents never blamed me, but they were heartbroken. It really hurt my feelings. 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. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. Part of what I feel is a calling to be there. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and writing about the biblical oracle Isaiah's prophecies about our time has been rebaptized into the faith. 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. 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. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. 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. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.". 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. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. 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. Following the wave of media attention that greeted the September excommunications, the First Presidency defended what had taken place. After it was published, Hugh West, the president of his stake in Salt Lake CityQuinn never moved to Provo, finding the hourlong commute worth it to live in Utahs one metropolisasked to see him. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. My searching was complete. He froze. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. 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. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. He turned 65 two years later, making him eligible for Social Security and Medicare. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Quinn got hate mail. It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. 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 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. 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 . Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . Article type . As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? (Rick Bowmer/AP) This article is more than 8 years old. News. 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. I see her articles on here all the time and the Tribune has never really been a friend to the TSCC. I love Jesus. 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. He himself did not even stay in town. ", "Guilt, pain, help and hope when Mormon missionaries come home early", "For a string of vivid reports revealing the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment given to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University, one of Utah's most powerful institutions. The Salt Lake Tribune . That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. (Benson died in 94, Hunter in 95.) A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. 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. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) 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. 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. He was excommunicated in 1911. sltrib.com. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. 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 other Quinn was not home when the call came, and a baby-sitter answered the phone. The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. The movie was a live-action adaptation of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. Hi, Peggy. Ive had more than one therapist Ive talked to about this issue say, Dont you see that you were purposely setting yourself up for this fall? he told me. 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. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. 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. All rights reserved. She has sat quietly in the same pew as the emblems of the sacrament, or communion, have passed by her more than 1,200 times without being able to partake. This has been intentional. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. "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. 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 former LDS stake president, who oversaw a group of Mormon congregations in Tooele for eight years and worked as an architect on her faith's most sacred spaces, faced, in her mind, an impossible choice: Either return to living as a man or resign her . The Mormon church is organized into congregations called wards; a group of these is called a stake. or. One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. [4], She won the 2004 Cornell Award for 'Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers' from the Religion Newswriters Association in 2004, an award she also received in 2012, 2017, and 2018. 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. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. That came out in early 1993. Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. They divorced soon after. The symposium's "Pillars of My Faith" session will showcase a similar path, said Mary Ellen Robertson, Sunstone's interim executive director. Dallin Oaks speaking at the General Conference in April 1989. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. But gradually, pressure on Mormon scholars eased, and today many write and publish without any obvious concern for what their stake presidents might think. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. I don't think I could have done that graciously. The high council also heard from Andersons son, Christian, who offered his personal assessment. 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. 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. "The issues in Mormon doctrine, history and practice highlighted by those facing church discipline are much larger than any one individual," the statement reads. It is also worth noting that the church president in 1993 was an ailing Ezra Taft Benson. 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. They cited a 19th-century revelation to Joseph Smith, in which he spoke of the saints gathering up a knowledge of all the facts, and sufferings and abuses put upon them, and said that perhaps a committee can be appointed to find out these things, and to take statements and affidavits; and also to gather up the libelous publications that are afloat. The First Presidency did not mention that when Smith received this revelation he was in prison in Missouri, where a Mormon extermination order had been decreed by the governor not long before. Box 15 miles from where he was staying, and in New Orleans he had it delivered to a receiving center a little ways from his apartment. No telephone call came., On Aug. 27, McLean delivered the First Presidency denial. 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.. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. She did, however, tell her leaders her concerns about church exclusion policies: barring worthy LGBTQ couples who are legally married from full participation; blocking worthy and righteous women from the male-only priesthood; and keeping Mother in Heaven from her place in our understanding.. [3] She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. 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. 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. By then, Quinn had more or less moved on. In many respects, Andersons affirmations mirror those of other members. He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) 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. 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. The church declined to comment on the decision.

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