Bad marriages had women running to and away from . 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. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. All rights reserved. They never gave me one reason. Sometimes Stack refers to Salt Lake City . LDS Church wants to light up a temple in a place that prides itself on dark skies, For husband-and-wife team, this new restaurant is the culmination of a decadeslong dream, article she wrote in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. A year later, David J. McLean, president of the Salt Lake Liberty Stake, reconvened a high council, a body that had excommunicated her 25 years and six months earlier for apostasy, Anderson wrote in a summary of her experience for a forthcoming volume of her essays, Mercy Without End: Toward a More Inclusive Church.. Where else would I be but in the church? Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. 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. He contends that a former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had openly romantic feelings for men, and highlights a once hushed-up gay affair from the 1940s between a prominent church leader and a 21-year-old Mormon serving in the Navy. I love the gospel. 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. 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. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. Woodruff himself said in his journal that he was acting for the temporal salvation of the church, and the 1890 Manifestoas his official statement is knownwas not immediately taken to be a divine revelation. No way. ", 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]. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. Hundreds of other members joined him at gatherings and in small groups, and thus was born the "remnant movement ," which today touts 1000s of adherents. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. Hi, Peggy. Religion Two decades after she was "exed," Utah writer still attends her LDS ward. We embedded him as thoroughly in the church as we ourselves had been. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. 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 . 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. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. He, the bishop, and the other counselor held the necessary courts, excommunicating those who wanted out. "The issues in Mormon doctrine, history and practice highlighted by those facing church discipline are much larger than any one individual," the statement reads. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. In 1989, Dallin H. Oaks, the onetime law professor and BYU president who was now an apostle, had given a talk called Alternate Voices at the churchs semiannual General Conference. 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. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. 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. 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 . It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. Two years later, he was called as an apostle. 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. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. Maybe she wants to be, though. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. 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. On Oct. 16, 1985, Quinn was having a late lunch at a BYU food court when he heard a news report that Mark Hofmann had been blown up by a pipe bomb in Salt Lake City. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. 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. Quinn and four othersLavina Fielding Anderson, Maxine Hanks (a distant relative of Paul Hanks, the stake president who showed up at Quinns apartment), Paul Toscano, and Avraham Gileadiwere excommunicated by stake presidents in Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah; a sixth, Lynn Whitesides, was disfellowshipped, meaning that she remained a member of the church but could not fully participate in its rites and activities. 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.. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. 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. I could listen to the spirit there. Quinn refused. Hed better start keeping it to himself. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. Saturday, February 22, 1997. How have the members of your ward treated you? . The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. 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. More painfully, as a high councilor in a Utah stake several years later, Quinn was part of courts prompted by personal sinsuch as engaging in homosexual acts. ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . 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. In the first few days after the bombings, several people who had come into contact with Hofmann feared for their lives. Peggy Fletcher. 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.. Ill come get him. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. She was told to pass along this message: Im tired of hearing him criticize the church. 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. 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. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. I have been taught a vision of a truly cooperative future where men and women are complete equals. I love the church. Vern Anderson wrote an AP story about the book, and several Utah papers carried reviews. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. They didn't say anything. He himself did not even stay in town. I might have lost my soul, but at least I still have my mind. She studied "traditional, sacramental Christianity and priesthood," Hanks said this week. LDS officials disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals in and around the fall of 1993. Last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Speaking Tubes in the Household of Faith", "A Light Unto the World: Image Building Is Anathema to Christian Living", "From the Editors: Stretching Toward the Light", "From the Editors: A Failure to Communicate", "Church Historian: Evolution of a Calling", "Tales of a true believer: picking up faith along the way", "Books: Mormon Novels Entertain While Teaching Lessons", "Twenty Years Ago in Sunstone: Symbol and Promise", "Peggy Fletcher Stack: Happy 100th to my physicist father, who remains a truth seeker in science and faith", "Utahn who pioneered synthesized stereo sound will receive posthumous Grammy", "Despite Growth, Mormons Find New Hurdles", "Nobody Knows Religion Quite Like Peggy Fletcher Stack", "Religion Newswriters Association honors top religion reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2017 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Winners named in 2018 RNA Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence", "Journalism Awards - Winners and Articles", "The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Local Reporting: The Salt Lake Tribune Staff", "Religion Newswriters Association announces 2008 contest winners", "Religion Newswriters Association names winners of 2015 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2016 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "SL Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack wins top religion reporting prize for fifth year", "Dreams, Dollars, and Dr. Pepper: Allen Roberts & Peggy Fletcher Years (19781980)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peggy_Fletcher_Stack&oldid=1124718303, "Nation's Founders: How Religious Were They? It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. See Photos. He wept as he read it aloud to others. And he was the most strident of the group when it came to denouncing internal critics of Mormon leaders and teachings. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. Just go to . I just feel such heartache that the church I love is doing this to people who are sincere and trying to find ways of being Mormon and express their love of the gospel. The timing of his career, which once appeared serendipitous, now seems almost cruel. Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. 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. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. I was removed from that situation. Quinn was shocked that it took that long. 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. by Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. Stack has received and been nominated for multiple awards. Today, LDS leaders seem more inclined to recognize, said Wotherspoon, now host of the "Mormon Matters" podcast, "that Zion is made up of people of all types. I didn't have any doubts. His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) The church declined to comment on the decision. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. She talks very vaguely when it comes to personal, specific spiritual beliefs and whether they align with doctrine, but she doesn't hesitate to call the church out on its shit at all. By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. 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. Crucially, much of that project is onlinemore than anything, the Internet has revolutionized the field. 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. He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. News. "Given who I was, there was no place to go but out," Hanks said in 2003, on the 10th anniversary of the excommunications. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. 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. West did not formally revoke the recommend, he just put it in his drawer. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". Ive had more than one therapist Ive talked to about this issue say, Dont you see that you were purposely setting yourself up for this fall? he told me. I was not surprised or angry about the outcome, Anderson said Wednesday, and she has no plans to try to open that door again. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. The symposium's "Pillars of My Faith" session will showcase a similar path, said Mary Ellen Robertson, Sunstone's interim executive director. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . During Quinns college years, BYUs president, Ernest Wilkinson, organized a student spy ring intended to catch out professors with communist leanings. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. 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. 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. 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. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. My dad was a bishop twice. 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. 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. Not long after that, the bishop met with Anderson and asked her ever so gently if she would like to discuss reinstatement. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. Quinn was an ordinance worker, meaning he went to the temple regularly and helped others perform those rites. 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) I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land, it says. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. 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. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. (Rick Bowmer/AP) This article is more than 8 years old. 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. Hanks became conciliatory, reading On Being a Mormon Historian, and writing to say hed gotten from it deeper insight into your devotion and your dedication to history and the Church. He asked again to meet when Quinn came back to Utah. Mormonism was as much an identity issue for them as it is for me. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for . 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. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. Gileadi, a Hebrew scholar who got into trouble for unorthodox writings about the biblical Isaiah, was rebaptized within several years. (He took the surname from actor Anthony Quinn, whom he knew growing up in the Los Angeles barrio.) Quinns status in the church remained unchanged. A former BYU professor named David Wright was excommunicated in 1994 after publishing a paper arguing that the Book of Mormon was not an ancient text. 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. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. Log In. Packers involvement mattered because the Twelve Apostles are considered by devout Mormons to be prophets, seers, and revelators. If they directed the councils, then the excommunications were, essentially, a message from the churchs highest spiritual authorities about what Mormons were allowed to do andpublicly, at leastto say. 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. I see her articles on here all the time and the Tribune has never really been a friend to the TSCC. Hofmann eventually became, in the words of one expert, the most skilled forger this country has ever seen. For LDS leaders nervous about church history, he was a nightmare personified: a lying, murderous man hell-bent on embarrassing the religion while glorifying and enriching himself. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. KRE/AMB END STACK "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks told The Salt Lake Tribune that year. Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" Again, I'm reminded of a scene in "Schindler's List" where the 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. Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. By then, Quinn had more or less moved on. Years ago, Don Bradley, a longtime scholar of Mormon history, asked to have his name removed from LDS membership rolls when participation became uncomfortable. 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. 1897 - First Presidency member George Q. Cannon used the media attention on the 1895 conviction and two-year imprisonment of famed Irish poet Oscar Wilde as an opportunity to pu Peggy Fletcher. One theory on that first day of panic was that the bombings were connected with the business, an investment company called CFS. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. And he based at least one of his forgeries on the work of Michael Quinn. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. I assumed there was a way to work it out. Boyd Packer, left, and Dallin Oaks, right, Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wait for the start of the first session of the 181st Semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. In both forms of LDS courts, the accused is typically allowed to bring in character witnesses. 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. They had the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the church, they said, adding that, because Mormon leaders are constrained by confidentiality rules, the media have relied on information supplied by those disciplined or by their sympathizers. Similar councils occurred more sporadically over the next few years. by Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) 06-23-2015. All rights reserved. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. Gileadi, Toscano, Anderson, and Hanks were all excommunicated. The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. 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. LDS bloggers issue statement of support More than 70 Mormon bloggers, representing a dozen or more websites, have signed a document, "Room for All in This Church," calling for "clemency" in the upcoming disciplinary councils for Kate Kelly and John Dehlin. . He was in a wheelchair. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. 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. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) What's happening is so wrong. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. 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. 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. 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. . When I make comments in Sunday school and Relief Society, they are accepted as anyone else's. The noisy nonsense on-screen felt to Quinn like a rough equivalent of what the church was doing to him. [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. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . I hate him. 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.. By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. All rights reserved. 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. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. 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.