But he had a caring bishop that first year and decided on his own to serve a mission. 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. 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. 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. 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 bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. Hanks was accused of apostasy for editing an anthology, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, which included a discussion of the all-male priesthood and womens relationship to it. Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. I hate him. Every morning he worked there was Christmas morning, Quinn says. He then announced that I was not a member in good standing and could not use my temple recommend. 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. Oaks said Packer had met with Toscanos stake president, and acknowledged that this was a mistake. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . Quinn was shocked that it took that long. KRE/AMB END STACK In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. Her explorations gave Hanks a new level of understanding and "testimony" of Mormonism. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . At least, that's how Hall sees it. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. On the Sunday it was held, Quinn went to a movie theater in downtown Salt Lake and bought a ticket for the first screening he could find, to take his mind off the disciplinary council. She currently serves on the . 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. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. On March 23, 2018, Andersons husband, Paul, died of heart failure. He was in a wheelchair. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. This friend, Quinn says, told him that the men on the council disagreed about whether Quinn was an apostate, and that President Hanks finally declared that Boyd K. Packer was pressing him to take action, and they needed to do something. Taking the sacrament because it's an exclusion I feel every single week. He wept as he read it aloud to others. 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. Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. 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. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. If those top leaders did not know where he lived, then they could not assign him to a particular stake, and his church membership could not be threatened. I didn't have any doubts. Soon after, he happened to attend, with some friends, a meeting of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a splinter sect that believes Joseph Smiths son, not Brigham Young, was Smiths rightful successor as prophet. It was run by William O. Nelson, he said, once an assistant to Ezra Taft Benson who now reported to Boyd K. Packer. 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. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. 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. At least, that's how Hall sees 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. He acknowledged to me that, of course, it is possible to find outlets for service outside of Mormonism. Jay Christian, left, and thousands of other people protest against the passage of Californias Proposition 8 outside the world headquarters of Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Quinn told friends that he did not want anyone to lobby on his behalf. Nor does it read like one. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. 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. A candlelight vigil was held outside the Salt Lake City meetinghouse where it took place. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. In a detailed confession, Hofmann said that he had secretly stopped believing in Mormonism as a teenager and had hatched a plan to embarrass the church by creating fake documents that exposed uncomfortable facts about early Mormon history. The biggest thing that got me was the excommunication of bill reel segment of the Mormon stories podcast. 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. 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. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. All rights reserved. Quinn read Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. It sent him down a rabbit hole. There are other matters that I need to talk with you about that are not related to your historical writings. The Mormon church is organized into congregations called wards; a group of these is called a stake. By then, Quinn had more or less moved on. As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. He never wrote another work of fiction. Where a skeptic sees convenience, a believer may see Gods hand. [3] She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. Quinn attended that ward in Westwood every week while he was in California. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. 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. We had been home about 20 minutes when two high counselors came to our house and delivered a letter, inviting me to a disciplinary hearing two weeks from that day. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. [15], Stack wrote a children's book about religion with artist Kathleen B. Petersen, entitled A World of Faith, published in 1998.[4][16]. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. I have been doing that for 18 years. I felt they were not going to drive me away. If you've picked up a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune in the last 26 years, you know Peggy Fletcher Stack's name. Crucially, much of that project is onlinemore than anything, the Internet has revolutionized the field. 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. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017 . By the time Quinn arrived, the program had been disavowed, and many of these baptisms needed to be undone. 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. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. Quinn got hate mail. I don't think I could have done that graciously. 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 always felt that I had Gods sanction and encouragement, so I went ahead following that path. Even early on, a fellow Mormon historian started telling Quinn he must have a death wish regarding his membership in the church. Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 Nov. 2022 To that end, the power that Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger bring is their personal stories of defiance and excommunication. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. 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. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. 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.. I was removed from that situation. The symposium's "Pillars of My Faith" session will showcase a similar path, said Mary Ellen Robertson, Sunstone's interim executive director. Whitesides says that Connie Chungs people asked her to take a hidden camera into her court. He was the first academic to occupy the post, previously held only by high-ranking LDS leaders, and his appointment signaled a broader effort to reorganize the historians office along professional lines. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. TV and newspaper reporters came. [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. Snuffer was excommunicated. (Rick Bowmer/AP) This article is more than 8 years old. . They dont acquire these positions by filling out an application and sending in a rsum. Log In. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. At its worst, such talk is sometimes called speaking evil of the Lords anointed.. Peggy Fletcher. He got up in front of the congregation and declared his belief in the Mormon gospel, in Joseph Smiths status as a prophet of God, and in the Book of Mormon as divine scripture. 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. Ill come get him. 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. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. I heard she's not Mormon at all. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. It was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. 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. I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. [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. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. Caffeinated Version: He referred to the pathos that I felt in your private letters to mea plea to not be discarded from something that you love. I want to help resolve that pathos, he added, and a sadness that seems to pervade your private writing to me.. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. As the historian Ross Peterson said at the time, Comparing Sunstone and Dialogue folks to people who were shooting Mormons in 1839 Missouri is unfair. Peterson, after speaking about Mormon temple rites in the press, had been shown his own file during a conversation with local church leaders. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. But that was not how he experienced it. 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. Quinn refused. "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 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. He didn't seem to know what footnotes are so he thought I made the whole thing up. A forum for ex-mormons and others who have been affected by mormonism to get support and share news, commentary, and comedy about the Mormon church. 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. Article type . >Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity . Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. . In the quarter-century since her ouster, Anderson consistently has attended weekly services at her Latter-day Saint congregation, the Whittier Ward. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. He had, after all, believed for many years that he would someday be a leader of the church, knowing that if this were true he would have to forever suppress an essential part of himself. He asked Quinn to come see him in his office after work one day, Quinn says. Robert Kirby does this also, but much more indirectly. 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. [3][4][5] She was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), with her father traveling and speaking as a member of the stake high council. In California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. They divorced soon after. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack, a . During Quinns college years, BYUs president, Ernest Wilkinson, organized a student spy ring intended to catch out professors with communist leanings. 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. He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. Hanks rejoined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February. ", 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]. One theory on that first day of panic was that the bombings were connected with the business, an investment company called CFS. That was established definitively in 1986 after Hofmann confessed to the murders of Christensen and Sheets as part of a plea to avoid the death penalty. 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. 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. P The Sunstone Symposium runs July 25-28 at the University of Utah's Olpin Student Union. Woodwards piece, headlined Apostles vs. Historians, called Quinns talk a stirring defense of intellectual integrity that had put Benson and Packer on the defensive. It was illustrated with a large photograph of Quinn up top, and a considerably smaller one of Packer. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. [5] She met Mike Stack when he volunteered as a photographer for Sunstone in 1984, and they married in October 1985. 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. was pressured to resign from Brigham Young University and subsequently excommunicated from the faith in 1993 as part of the famed "September Six . Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. Peggy Fletcher. Quinn was so depressed by the experience that for a few weeks he lost his belief in God completely. Peggy Fletcher Stack. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. 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. Part of what I feel is a calling to be there. That's a good question. 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. 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. Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. Quinns status in the church remained unchanged. 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. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. Within the past few years, Bradley had a change of heart and was rebaptized. Peggy Fletcher was raised in New Jersey, daughter of physicist Robert Chipman Fletcher and Rosemary Bennett, one of five girls and three boys. Hed read the essay about women and the priesthood, and he asked Quinn to speak on the subject at an upcoming fireside, an informal evening meeting often held at Mormon meetinghouses. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. Feb 17. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. 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 I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. Daryl Peveto/Luceo Images for Slate. . 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) By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. It really hurt my feelings. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. That has been a blessing truly fulfilled. 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. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. 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. I love the church. 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 keeps fairly careful records of its membership, for one thing, records that play a part in the worldwide effort to bring salvation to all of Gods children. Find your friends on Facebook. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." All rights reserved. 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. Hanks became less diplomatic. I might have lost my soul, but at least I still have my mind. Where else would I be but in the church?
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