The Mormon church is organized into congregations called wards; a group of these is called a stake. 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. Hanks became conciliatory, reading On Being a Mormon Historian, and writing to say hed gotten from it deeper insight into your devotion and your dedication to history and the Church. He asked again to meet when Quinn came back to Utah. 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 also worth noting that the church president in 1993 was an ailing Ezra Taft Benson. Down in Provo, Avraham Gileadi met more quietly with his local leaders. >Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity . Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. 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. Many people do reside in the borderlands between Mormon and not. On March 23, 2018, Andersons husband, Paul, died of heart failure. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. However, I do not see that eternal equality reflected in the contemporary church.". She currently serves on the . Snuffer was excommunicated. He revised the story occasionally over the next decade, submitting it unsuccessfully to the Paris Review and the Atlantic. We had stake [regional] conference in September. By Peggy Fletcher Stack After an exhausting six-hour disciplinary hearing Sunday, Mormon leaders temporarily suspended Grant H. Palmer's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. 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. Paul's mother was great. Today, its Nelson, with a new counselor, Oaks, instead of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service - Page 5 of 6 In both forms of LDS courts, the accused is typically allowed to bring in character witnesses. 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. Some did not know that they were. memeorandum: High-ranking Mormon official, who twice spoke in General Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two (He was delivering the third bombto whom it is not entirely clearwhen it blew up accidentally.) It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for . by Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) 06-23-2015. Hanks rejoined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. Which has also, it seems, made Michael Quinns singular focus on the unspoken parts of the Mormon past less relevant to younger historians, who operate with more freedom and less pressureand who draw far more interest than their predecessors from the wider world, which has suddenly become fascinated by Mormonism. 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. 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. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. I have been taught a vision of a truly cooperative future where men and women are complete equals. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. Mormons devote one sacrament meeting each month to personal testimonies, and Quinn was sure this would be his last opportunity to offer his in church. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. How did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grow so fast Those 15 men oversee the multiple Quorums of the Seventy, who in turn direct the stake presidents and bishops who minister to congregations on a part-time, voluntary basis. 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. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. Person 2 Person: Peggy Fletcher Stack | KUTV ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . It was run by William O. Nelson, he said, once an assistant to Ezra Taft Benson who now reported to Boyd K. Packer. "She might be a model for others who have been missing their Mormon community.". While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. Quinn, who later assisted the police in their investigation, did not go home for several days. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. In the late 60s, he was called to preside over the churchs missionary efforts in New England, and moved with his family to Cambridge, Mass. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. 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. 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 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. Sign Up. He turned 65 two years later, making him eligible for Social Security and Medicare. But the third bomb, which badly injured but did not kill Hofmann, hinted at a tie to the salamander letter, a disputed historical document that Christensen had purchased from Hofmann a year before and which had inspired Quinns latest research project, a book eventually titled Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview. 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. Local TV reporters were filming the session, and the AP reporter Vern Anderson was sitting at the far side of the room about halfway back. It was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". 1511: Mormon Stories Transparency Q&A for Peggy Fletcher Stack and Tony 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. He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. Hanks officially came back into the fold in 2012. 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. With no regular income to speak of, Quinn moved into his mothers condo in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. In hindsight, the purge of September 1993 looks like the last big push for a kind of control that LDS leaders will probably never have again. 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. He said it was apostasy because I believed that general authorities had done something wrong. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. They dont acquire these positions by filling out an application and sending in a rsum. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. The noisy nonsense on-screen felt to Quinn like a rough equivalent of what the church was doing to him. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks told The Salt Lake Tribune that year. Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return | Out of Obscurity 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. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Quinn attended that ward in Westwood every week while he was in California. In 1997, the acclaimed historian Richard Bushman, who spent much of his career writing on non-LDS topics, began studying his religion again in earnest, and convened an annual seminar that helped attract young scholars who might have pursued other interests. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) Peggy Fletcher. 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. Quinn argued against excommunication, he told me, but he did not have the final say. Quinn got hate mail. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . PDF Peggy fletcher stack excommunicated - World Tile 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. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. At least, that's how Hall sees it. 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. He stinks.. But nothing else has driven him to contribute to the lives of others the way the faith in which he was born and raised once did. It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. By Peggy Fletcher Stack By David Noyce For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Mormon church has excommunicated one of its top leaders. He left it up to local leaders to come up with a reason. After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. 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. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. Quinn refused. He wept as he read it aloud to others. 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. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . In 2001, a long-standing effort called the Joseph Smith Papers Project received additional funding and became a major draw to those who wished to study the early days of the church. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. 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. Dear Reader: When I began this series of essays on leadership, I never anticipated the final installment would chronicle recent events that have triggered the biggest spiritual struggle of my life. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. This made some church leaders uneasy. The most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. He then announced that I was not a member in good standing and could not use my temple recommend. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. (He also, as it happens, officiated at the wedding of my parents.) 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.. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. This year he completed the third and final volume in his trilogy on the Mormon hierarchy, which examines the churchs business and financial activities from 1830 to 2010.