But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. 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. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. 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. 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. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) The kindness of my ward members has been really important. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. Down in Provo, Avraham Gileadi met more quietly with his local leaders. She studied "traditional, sacramental Christianity and priesthood," Hanks said this week. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. 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 Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. 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 went to stay instead with an old college friend, Richard Lambert. The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack, a . 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.. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. That's a good question. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. I was removed from that situation. Quinn read Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. They don't feel safe enough to keep going it's such a terrible, terrible loss. Quinn refused. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. 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. In the summer of 1952, the late Sterling McMurrin, an eminent philosopher and writer, met with two LDS apostles to defend his theological views.With complete candor, McMurrin laid out for Elders Joseph Fielding Smith and Harold . West refused to do this, according to Quinn. There have always been dissidents in the Mormon ranksthe religion itself is one particularly dramatic dissent from the rest of Christian traditionbut a new community of Mormon intellectuals had coalesced in the 1960s and 70s. 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. 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. 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. But gradually, pressure on Mormon scholars eased, and today many write and publish without any obvious concern for what their stake presidents might think. Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. 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 bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. Peggy Fletcher Stack. Two of the so-called "September Six" have found their way back into the LDS fold while Anderson though never rebaptized in some ways has never left. It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. How did you find out about the impending disciplinary hearing? I accuse that committee, England declared, of undermining our Church.. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. See Photos. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. He turned 65 two years later, making him eligible for Social Security and Medicare. After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." 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. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. The book, published a decade before, was written by Taylors son Samuel, best known today, perhaps, for writing the short story that became The Absent-Minded Professor. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. 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. 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. What's it like going to church for two decades as an excommunicated member? 2012. Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. 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 . I could imagine the First Presidency thinking that this is not an episode worth revisiting, Bowman wrote in an email. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. There is a peace that comes with that kind of clarity. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. Quinns polygamy essay, meanwhile, produced more trouble for him with LDS leaders. It sent him down a rabbit hole. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. Some did not know that they were. 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. 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. In the quarter-century since her ouster, Anderson consistently has attended weekly services at her Latter-day Saint congregation, the Whittier Ward. 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. Quinn was already on the alert for such wrinkles in the churchs history. He decided he would suppress that part of himself and be a good Mormon. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com. He decided that only 16 of the changes were significant. 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. 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.. My stake president said in an email, if I [didn't] come forward and tell people that I am not a member in good standing, he would. Before the first court, Whitesides and Anderson alerted friends and the press, and word spread quickly. He didn't seem to know what footnotes are so he thought I made the whole thing up. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. [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. Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. In the first few days after the bombings, several people who had come into contact with Hofmann feared for their lives. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. 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. But Robertson is especially pleased with the "Pillars" session. He has not been since. Hanks became less diplomatic. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. What I heard was that I would be excommunicated and that I shouldn't go. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. 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. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. One of the articles came from an anthology called Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, edited by Maxine Hanks, a distant relative of Pauland his uncle Marionand, soon, one of the September Six herself. 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. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. 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. 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. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. 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. ", Hanks is a "genuinely spiritual person and quite insightful, who brings a type of spirituality with her that will resonate with lots of people," he said. I see her articles on here all the time and the Tribune has never really been a friend to the TSCC. The biggest thing that got me was the excommunication of bill reel segment of the Mormon stories podcast. There are three areas where members of the church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away, declared Boyd K. Packer, one of the churchs Twelve Apostles, in May 1993. 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. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. My own name remains on the rolls of the church, and I plan to leave it there, though I stopped believing in the Mormon gospel 15 years ago. [10][11][12][13] The American Academy of Religion awarded her a first place Journalism Award in 2014 for her reporting on LDS missionaries who return home early from their volunteer missions. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) 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 . As a Mormon, he also knew that same-sex attraction was considered unfortunate at bestsomething to be struggled with, and, if possible, overcome. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. When interviewing Quinn in 76, Packer said, I have a hard time with historians, because they idolize the truth. 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. Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. Article type . "The issues in Mormon doctrine, history and practice highlighted by those facing church discipline are much larger than any one individual," the statement reads. The book opened Quinns teenage eyes to dissent within the highest echelons of LDS leadership, and to the apostles debateand apparent dissemblingabout plural marriage after 1890. 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. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. 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.. 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. The fact that we keep going to church is a blessing. He subsequently has . 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. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 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. She was struck by how frail he appeared, and found herself feeling nothing but compassion and love for a man who had once seemed like an enemy. Dave: We remind our listeners about a new way to support Mormon Land. It was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. 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. 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.