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. Quinn studied English literature in collegehe attended BYUbut during his three-year stint in the military he decided to become a historian, and make what had become a consuming pastime into his profession. 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 was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. An interview from January 1983: Sterling M. McMurrin : mormon SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. 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. . 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. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. 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. He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. Dated Oct. 23, 1830, the letter was addressed to an early Mormon convert named W.W. Phelps and signed Martin Harris. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. He turned 65 two years later, making him eligible for Social Security and Medicare. "She might be a model for others who have been missing their Mormon community.". 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. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. I had never been treated as a liar before. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. TV and newspaper reporters came. 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. 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. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. ", 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]. But the cause didn't really matter because it was pretty clear that Elder [Boyd K.] Packer [of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles] was trying to send a message by targeting certain people, such as historians and feminists. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. He didn't seem to know what footnotes are so he thought I made the whole thing up. I felt they were not going to drive me away. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. All rights reserved. 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. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Press J to jump to the feed. "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. When they did, Quinn, an only child, would go to his room, put on a classical record, and turn the volume up. Person 2 Person: Peggy Fletcher Stack | KUTV Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. But it was a forgery. Quinn read fiction, too, including James Baldwins new book, Giovannis Room. 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. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. By the time Quinn arrived, the program had been disavowed, and many of these baptisms needed to be undone. 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 draw numbers to pick sides.) 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.. All rights reserved. [5], The Stacks traveled in Africa for a year,[5] then settled in New York City for five years,[1] where she worked as the editor of the Hastings Center Report while her husband attended film school. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. The Mormon intellectual community far and wide is mourning the loss of Linda King Newell. Peggy Fletcher Stack - The Salt Lake Tribune 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. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. From an early age, he felt within himself the presence of God, this burning of the spirit, as he says. On Friday , during a popular evening session of next week's Sunstone Symposium, an annual meeting for Mormon intellectuals and observers, Hanks will detail her 20-year spiritual sojourn as a feminist theologian and chaplain, which brought her full circle back into Mormonism. sltrib.com. 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. All rights reserved. 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. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. LDS officials disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals in and around the fall of 1993. Maybe she wants to be, though. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for . Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. [5][6], Fletcher initially attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, for a year,[1] then transferred to the University of Utah, where she earned a BA in English literature. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. He decided he would suppress that part of himself and be a good Mormon. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. The former LDS stake president, who oversaw a group of congregations in Tooele for eight years and worked as an architect on her faith's most sacred spaces, faced, in her mind, an . Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. 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. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . It is also worth noting that the church president in 1993 was an ailing Ezra Taft Benson. [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. The high council also heard from Andersons son, Christian, who offered his personal assessment. How did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grow so fast Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax 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. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] In an April 1968 talk about military service, he described the restless, unchallenged young people who are repudiating their citizenship responsibilities by avoiding and protesting the draft. He insisted that the September councils were local affairs, but church employees who reported to him had, it turned out, been keeping tabs on the six who were disciplined, and rumors swirled that Packer himself personally insisted that the courts take place. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. 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. By then an assistant district attorney, Lambert later helped prosecute the case against Hofmann. 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. Not long after that, the bishop met with Anderson and asked her ever so gently if she would like to discuss reinstatement. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was not. The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. 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. Whitesides says that Connie Chungs people asked her to take a hidden camera into her court. She declined. Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) Some did not know that they were. 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. I hate him. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. At first, his timing appeared serendipitous: In 1972, while he was completing a masters in history at the University of Utah, an academic named Leonard Arrington was appointed church historian. 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. 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. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. Two years later, he was called as an apostle. I didn't have any doubts. They never gave me one reason. disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. 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. 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. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] 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. This new knowledge sent Quinn to the Journal of Discourses, a 26-volume collection of Mormon sermons. Packer, the second-most senior among the 12, was the substitute president of the Quorum of the Twelve whenever Hunter was sidelined for medical reasons. 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. After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. Some things that are true are not very useful. Its not clear whether Packer read Quinns work before interviewing him, but if he did, it probably would have struck him as less than useful. 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. Quinns mother, on the other hand, was a sixth-generation Mormon: She had an ancestor who converted when the Mormons were still in Nauvoo, Ill., and who is mentioned in Joseph Smiths journals. . 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.. Quinn was so depressed by the experience that for a few weeks he lost his belief in God completely. When interviewing Quinn in 76, Packer said, I have a hard time with historians, because they idolize the truth. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. 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. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. 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. In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. 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. Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. It sent him down a rabbit hole. 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 . Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. 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. I love the church. I didn't have to look at the councilmen and wonder what they said about me. 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 can't ex someone with that king of lineage. 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. He subsequently has . Though he maintained a solemn belief in the Mormon gospel and in the sacrament partaken of by the faithful at Sunday services, he stopped attending church altogether. 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 Salt Lake Tribune . McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. 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. In many respects, Andersons affirmations mirror those of other members. It struck him as an old missionarys trick. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.". How have the members of your ward treated you? He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. Many people do reside in the borderlands between Mormon and not. 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. And the Tribune is changing with it. 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.. 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. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. 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. While preparing for the retired Brigham Young University artists memorial service, Bishop Mahonri Madrigal read Pauls written testimony, or statements of faith, that the ward had compiled in 2000. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. He rejected the idea that his writings and his comments to reporters about Mormon history warranted disciplinary action, and he had come to a kind of peace about what he was sure awaited him. An Excommunication, And The Future Of The Church Of Jesus Christ - WBUR The timing of his career, which once appeared serendipitous, now seems almost cruel. ", "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.

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