The Mormon church is organized into congregations called wards; a group of these is called a stake. Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. If Peggy wanted to do some groundbreaking . It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. "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. 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. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. 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.. 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. Mystery! He stinks.. 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. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. Paul's mother was great. 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.. 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. But it was a forgery. 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. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." A second bomb that first day killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of one of Christensens former business partners. People named Peggy Fletcher. He wept as he read it aloud to others. Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. In May, my stake president called me in about it. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. 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. After the church court, when I walked into the chapel, it took about three times longer to get to my seat because so many people hugged me. 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. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. c. 2014 Salt Lake Tribune(RNS) The Mormon Church insists that excommunication threats targeting activists Kate Kelly and John Dehlin were generated by their respective LDS leaders in Virginia and northern Utah.Others see the timing as evidence that the two disciplinary hearings are being coordinated from the faith's Salt Lake City headquarters.But this much is certain: If Mormon higher-ups . 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. I love the gospel. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. In the past, many Mormon officials had a sense, he said, that the church must protect its members from "wolves among them.". After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks said. It's Judgment Day for Far Right: LDS Church Purges Survivalists My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. [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 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. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. 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. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. A member of that sect told Quinn about a since renounced bit of theology once preached by Brigham Young, referred to as the Adam-God doctrine. Youngs notion, roughly speaking, was that God and Adam are one and the same. JDK-8141210 : Very slow loading of JavaScript file with recent JDK Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . If her reentry had been approved, Anderson would have been the third of the six the other five are Avraham Gileadi, Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, D. Michael Quinn, Paul Toscano and Maxine Hanks to be welcomed back into full fellowship with the Utah-based faith. 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. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. While serving it in England, he was tasked with cleaning up the results of the Baseball Baptism Program, in which missionaries used sports to attract young converts. Even after that, a few high-ranking Mormons continued to authorize such marriages. I have been doing that for 18 years. 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. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. When Benson asked why no one had stopped him, Oaks allegedly replied, You cant stage manage a grizzly bear. Benson resigned his Mormon membership shortly afterward and became a vocal opponent of the church his grandfather ostensibly led. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. Former Mormon leader is building a new life _ as a woman It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. Dated Oct. 23, 1830, the letter was addressed to an early Mormon convert named W.W. Phelps and signed Martin Harris. 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 . 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. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. Born in 1924 in Brigham City, Utah, the 10th of 11 children, Packer worked for years as a teacher and administrator in the Church Educational System. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) 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. He was housesitting. How have the members of your ward treated you? He subsequently has . And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. 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. I admire her. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. This made some church leaders uneasy. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. 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. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for rebaptism into the LDS Church rejected by the faith's governing First Presidency after being approved by her local lay leaders. 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. Sometimes Stack refers to Salt Lake City . I did the very best I knew how to do, the thing that I felt was the right thing to do., Donate to the newsroom now. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. Lavina Fielding Anderson decided not to appear at her court, either, which took place at another Salt Lake meetinghouse a few days afterward. In 1981, he produced a blessing allegedly given by Joseph Smith to his son Joseph Smith III, declaring him my successor in the Presidency of the High Priesthood. The document was partly inspired, it appears, by The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844, which refers to such a blessing. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service - Page 2 of 6 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. Down in Provo, Avraham Gileadi met more quietly with his local leaders. Where a skeptic sees convenience, a believer may see Gods hand. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. 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 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. She said hello, but he did not recognize her. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. She is in the right family. Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) | Sojourners [15], Stack wrote a children's book about religion with artist Kathleen B. Petersen, entitled A World of Faith, published in 1998.[4][16]. Feb 17. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. Hanks return predated the Ordain Women movement, which pushed for women to join the faiths priesthood, said Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Bowman, who heads the Mormon studies program at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California. In it, Harris, who paid for the first printing of the Book of Mormon, tells a story of that books origins strikingly different from Smiths later, official account. 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 . 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. 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. 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. Like Quinn, hed first become interested in Mormon history when he learned that polygamy had gone on for years after its public abandonmenthe knew about this because his mothers parents were among the secret polygamists. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. No way. The Strengthening Church Members Committee almost certainly passed along notes about Quinn to his new stake president, Paul Hanks, in early 1993. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. 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. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. 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. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 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. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. I had received a blessing from a former stake president, assuring me that when the time was right, it would come very easily, so I could be at peace. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. At least, that's how Hall sees it. Peggy Fletcher Stack - WikiMili, The Best Wikipedia Reader Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. Peggy Fletcher Stack. . He found me outside and was kind and helpful. The modern Mormon church has become a fairly top-down organization, but most responsibility for attending to its members still resides in local lay leaders. Some, perhaps, simply regretted the bad press. I had my answers.". sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Dallin Oaks speaking at the General Conference in April 1989. When he went into his office, the bishop, a man named Tom Andersen, said hed read this article in the L.A. Times, Quinn told me. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) Going to the temple, but I feel that it's more important to have the temple in me than for me to be in the temple. . 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. News. 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. Quinns religious status wouldofficially, at leastbe decided by his own stake president, not by the higher-ups in Salt Lake City. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was not. We had a family devotional every night with prayer, singing and scripture reading. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. 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. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. By then an assistant district attorney, Lambert later helped prosecute the case against Hofmann. How is Peggy Fletcher Stack still Mormon? : r/exmormon - reddit 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. [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. Dubbed the September Six, the group were mostly left-leaning writers and scholars who had published articles or given talks about the role of women in Mormonism and the way the churchs leaders handle dissent. 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. (Quinn attempted to reach this friend through a third party before my piece was finished, but declined to give me his name before speaking to him.) Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. [5] She met Mike Stack when he volunteered as a photographer for Sunstone in 1984, and they married in October 1985. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. 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. Find your friends on Facebook. 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. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. He looked in the card catalog under pervert, which was the word his grandmother had used after he told her that another kid at church had been groping him. 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. I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. Quinn, who later assisted the police in their investigation, did not go home for several days. As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. Article type . I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. He revised the story occasionally over the next decade, submitting it unsuccessfully to the Paris Review and the Atlantic. But Robertson is especially pleased with the "Pillars" session. Quinn wrote back more harshly this time, listing all the things Hanks had done that troubled him. 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. 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. As a Mormon, he also knew that same-sex attraction was considered unfortunate at bestsomething to be struggled with, and, if possible, overcome. September Six - Wikipedia All rights reserved. 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 felt they were not going to drive me away. SCHOLAR REBAPTIZED INTO LDS CHURCH - Deseret News But that was not how he experienced it. 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. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . In May 1993, apostle Boyd K. Packer said the church's three greatest threats came from feminists, gays and intellectuals. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. What I heard was that I would be excommunicated and that I shouldn't go. He himself did not even stay in town. One of the central questions in the aftermath of Septembers events was just how involved Packer himself had been in them. It's a way for me to participate and contribute, almost like having a calling. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. She said she was really angry at the church, not at me. [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.
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