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. The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. The seventh son of Taylors third wife, Samuel sympathetically portrays his notorious father, who continued to marry multiple wives well after the LDS church officially renounced polygamy in 1890. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. 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. As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. Quinns status in the church remained unchanged. [4] During her time there, she has met and interviewed the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Gordon B. Hinckley, among others. 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. 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. 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 . 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. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. 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. 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. England said he knew about this espionage systemit was called the Strengthening Church Members Committee, and it compiled documents and highlighted statements considered critical of the church. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. Just prior to reading Family Kingdom hed seen an anti-Mormon pamphlet called The Book of Mormon Examined, which highlighted hundreds of changes Joseph Smith made to the Mormon scripture in its first few printings. He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. He stinks.. At the conference, he spoke about the history of same-sex relationships in the church and the shifting attitudes toward them on the part of Mormon leaders. Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. There are other matters that I need to talk with you about that are not related to your historical writings. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 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. 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. Mystery! And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. June 17, 2014 8:59 pm . From an early age, he felt within himself the presence of God, this burning of the spirit, as he says. No way. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. Lavina Fielding Anderson decided not to appear at her court, either, which took place at another Salt Lake meetinghouse a few days afterward. This made some church leaders uneasy. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. Peggy Fletcher Stack | The Christian Century He hopes that eventually hell manage to sell the condo and will get enough money for it that he could move back to New Orleans and live there for the last couple decades, God willing, of his life. I could listen to the spirit there. 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 most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. 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. 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. I could imagine the First Presidency thinking that this is not an episode worth revisiting, Bowman wrote in an email. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . A Response to Peggy Fletcher Stack about OSF Finances If there is unfinished business, its the First Presidencys, not mine.. Former Mormon leader is building a new life _ as a woman She was upset that he was not attending church, and so he drove 45 minutes to a singles ward, a Mormon congregation specifically for unmarried adults, near UCLA. 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. 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 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. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. On Tuesday morning, James J. Hamula was released from his position in the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after disciplinary Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . Oaks said Packer had met with Toscanos stake president, and acknowledged that this was a mistake. While the simpler approach is handled by a bishop and his two counselors, the more elaborate version is run by a stake president, and it involves not only his two counselors but the stakes high council, a group of 12 men. But he could no longer go to the temple. I had my answers.". Gileadi, a Hebrew scholar who got into trouble for unorthodox writings about the biblical Isaiah, was rebaptized within several years. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. 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. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . Years ago, Don Bradley, a longtime scholar of Mormon history, asked to have his name removed from LDS membership rolls when participation became uncomfortable. That's a good question. At least, that's how Hall sees it. A candlelight vigil was held outside the Salt Lake City meetinghouse where it took place. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, nearly fainted waiting for the Dalai Lama, fasted with Muslims during Ramadan and has reported on 50 consecutive semiannual LDS General Conferences. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. 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. Person 2 Person: Peggy Fletcher Stack | KUTV Peggy fletcher stack excommunicated Denver Snufferpersonalbordenver Carlos Snuffer Jr.Religion (Mormon Independent) Restoration Andsupra-Denominational Christian [1] Nationality Americanhome Townmountain House, Idahochildrensisx Daughters and Two Children [2] Alma Materdaniel Webster Junior Collegemcmurry UniversityBrigham Young University (JD, 1980) Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.". (Quinn attempted to reach this friend through a third party before my piece was finished, but declined to give me his name before speaking to him.) I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. 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. Where a skeptic sees convenience, a believer may see Gods hand. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. Some, perhaps, simply regretted the bad press. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. June 19, 2014 ; 1 of 9; The movie was a live-action adaptation of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. The noisy nonsense on-screen felt to Quinn like a rough equivalent of what the church was doing to him. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. Not long after that, the bishop met with Anderson and asked her ever so gently if she would like to discuss reinstatement. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry.. 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.. And the Tribune is changing with it. He revised the story occasionally over the next decade, submitting it unsuccessfully to the Paris Review and the Atlantic. 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. 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. 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. 1511: Mormon Stories Transparency Q&A for Peggy Fletcher Stack and Tony And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Even after that, a few high-ranking Mormons continued to authorize such marriages. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. In 1981, Quinn was asked by the colleges chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, a national honor society for history students, to respond to The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect. He did not pull his punches. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. Hanks became less diplomatic. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. Paul's mother was great. 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.. Later he was told that despite his request that no one speak for him, a friend had attended and done just that, playing recordings of Quinns presentations at past Sunstone Symposia and reading excerpts from his writings. 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. Mormonism was as much an identity issue for them as it is for me. Leadership in Difficult Times: Critical Thinking and Wisdom (Part II) Peggy Fletcher Stack - Wikipedia We had stake [regional] conference in September. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . By the time Quinn arrived, the program had been disavowed, and many of these baptisms needed to be undone. 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. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. With no regular income to speak of, Quinn moved into his mothers condo in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for rebaptism into the LDS Church rejected by the faith's governing First Presidency after being approved by her local lay leaders. Wilkinson was reprimanded, though, and in 1970 he was replaced by Dallin H. Oaks, a law professor at the University of Chicago who had clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren at the U.S. Supreme Court. It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. An Excommunication, And The Future Of The Church Of Jesus Christ - WBUR By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . 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. 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. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. 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. It sent him down a rabbit hole. I go over the temple ceremony and the covenants in my mind and remake them before the Lord often. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. The demographics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include statistical data relating to the church's population and particular groups within it.. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. Every morning he worked there was Christmas morning, Quinn says. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. 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. After 20 years, this excommunicated Mormon still attends her LDS ward This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. I see her articles on here all the time and the Tribune has never really been a friend to the TSCC. Quinn, who later assisted the police in their investigation, did not go home for several days. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. . Many people do reside in the borderlands between Mormon and not. LDS officials disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals in and around the fall of 1993. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. 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 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. Demographics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints We were sitting in the front room of a house owned by a gay couple he knows in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Salt Lake City. What I heard was that I would be excommunicated and that I shouldn't go. How have the members of your ward treated you? That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. 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. But multiple faculty members argued that, in the words of one professor, Mike was not the right person to head up any kind of Mormon history or Mormonstudies program given the fact hes very publicly excommunicated. When he went into his office, the bishop, a man named Tom Andersen, said hed read this article in the L.A. Times, Quinn told me. Hymns were sung. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. It was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. 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 . I used to think Steve Benson was a bad person. I assured him I did not. Snuffer was excommunicated. The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. c. 2014 Salt Lake Tribune(RNS) The Mormon Church insists that excommunication threats targeting activists Kate Kelly and John Dehlin were generated by their respective LDS leaders in Virginia and northern Utah.Others see the timing as evidence that the two disciplinary hearings are being coordinated from the faith's Salt Lake City headquarters.But this much is certain: If Mormon higher-ups . Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? 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.. They didn't say anything. Quinns polygamy essay, meanwhile, produced more trouble for him with LDS leaders. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. The church declined to comment on the decision. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. The kindness of my ward members has been really important. Stack is an advisor on religion to the Public Broadcasting Service,[2] and has written two books. (He also, as it happens, officiated at the wedding of my parents.) (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) Two decades ago, Maxine Hanks could not have imagined where her spiritual journey would take her, but she knew this much: She would not likely be walking into the waters of Mormon baptism. disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. While serving it in England, he was tasked with cleaning up the results of the Baseball Baptism Program, in which missionaries used sports to attract young converts. What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. Today, its Nelson, with a new counselor, Oaks, instead of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. 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. 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. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. In the quarter-century since her ouster, Anderson consistently has attended weekly services at her Latter-day Saint congregation, the Whittier Ward. He visited these homes with his missionary companion and asked the boys if they still wanted to be Mormons. I have been doing that for 18 years. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. 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. That came out in early 1993. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for rebaptism into the LDS Church rejected by the faith's governing First Presidency after being approved by her local lay leaders. Quinn got hate mail. Article type . Re: Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. There he told a story about the time Packer embarrassed him in front of fellow church leaders as apparent payback for a slight from six years before. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. 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. One of the central questions in the aftermath of Septembers events was just how involved Packer himself had been in them. was pressured to resign from Brigham Young University and subsequently excommunicated from the faith in 1993 as part of the famed "September Six . I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks told The Salt Lake Tribune that year. The stake president, who oversees a number of congregations, remained optimistic, she said, zeroing in on the words, at this time., But the writer replied, Theres hope, and then theres experience., Besides, she said, it was a form letter.. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. West said hed been told by a higher authority to take further action to remedy the situation, Quinn says. Ill come get him. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service The stake president, a man named Paul Hanks, tried to step into the apartment as he said hello, Quinn recalls. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating, the worldwide effort to bring salvation to all of Gods children, Some things that are true are not very useful, LDS Authority and New Plural Marriages, 18901904, this growing conflict between leaders and intellectuals, Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood Since 1843, Quinns paper about the Baseball Baptism Program, the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the church, critical pieces he had written about Mitt Romney, Hanks described her path back to Mormonism, the administration caved to pressure from Ira Fulton.