The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. That higher-ranking leader, James Paramore, had further instructed West to say that the decision was Wests own, and had not come from above. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I assumed there was a way to work it out. [5] She met Mike Stack when he volunteered as a photographer for Sunstone in 1984, and they married in October 1985. In California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. (He also, as it happens, officiated at the wedding of my parents.) According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. But he had a caring bishop that first year and decided on his own to serve a mission. Something similar, if more protracted, took place after September 1993. 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. Peggy Fletcher. This other Quinn was not home when the call came, and a baby-sitter answered the phone. They never gave me one reason. He was excommunicated in 1911. 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. Mike Quinn in his Rancho Cucamonga home in California this summer. ", "Guilt, pain, help and hope when Mormon missionaries come home early", "For a string of vivid reports revealing the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment given to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University, one of Utah's most powerful institutions. 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. She said she was really angry at the church, not at me. Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? But the third bomb, which badly injured but did not kill Hofmann, hinted at a tie to the salamander letter, a disputed historical document that Christensen had purchased from Hofmann a year before and which had inspired Quinns latest research project, a book eventually titled Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview. 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. "Mormon facing excommunication makes his living off his podcasts," by Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune, February 8, 2015 "On Attempts to Smear (i.e., Being 'Fair Gamed'") by John Dehlin ; Faith Transition episodes on Mormon Stories . Hymns were sung. 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. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. There, he tried other kinds of writing, thinking maybe hed put Mormon history behind him. The meaning of EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. He moved back to Utah and began receiving mail at his actual address. 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. He froze. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. At Yale, while serving as one of two counselors to the local bishop, he found unanswered letters in the wards files from people who wished to leave the church. His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. He has occasionally attended other churches. Believers in Denver Snuffer's Remnant movement gather in a Sandy, Utah, home for a fellowship meeting on Aug. 13, 2017, to sing songs and partake of the sacrament. Disciplinary councils still happen, though they appear to be less frequent, particularly when it comes to apostasy. He also mentioned reading Quinns long Dialogue article about the politics of Ezra Taft Benson. 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. 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. In October, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that a threatening phone call had been made to the home of a local man named Michael D. Quinn. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. 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. Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. 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. . 9:30AM EDT 8/29/2017 Peggy Fletcher Stack/RNS. Many of the shifts in the church administration's position toward intellectuals recently has had to do with history and intellectual openness, while the issues driving Lavinas excommunication are still very much alive and unresolved today., It is possible, Bowman posits, there was fear that allowing for her rebaptism would send a signal on those issues that the First Presidency did not wish to send.. 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. I heard she's not Mormon at all. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. 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. I love the church. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example, published in 1996, argues that same-sex intimacy was much more accepted by early Mormonsincluding Joseph Smiththan it is today. Hebrew scholar Avraham Gileadi has been rebaptized into the LDS Church after being excommunicated for apostasy along with five other writers and scholars in September 1993. One theory on that first day of panic was that the bombings were connected with the business, an investment company called CFS. 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. 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. Article type . While the simpler approach is handled by a bishop and his two counselors, the more elaborate version is run by a stake president, and it involves not only his two counselors but the stakes high council, a group of 12 men. It was the papers second article in two weeks about a series of church courts held across 13 days in September and reported in media outlets across the country. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. Gileadi was not part of the Sunstone and Dialogue circles that the others moved in; he had been writing and teaching popular workshops about biblical and Book of Mormon prophecies, which appear to have been deemed false doctrine by LDS leaders. 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 did. The other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. LDS officials disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals in and around the fall of 1993. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. 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. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. Nowadays, anyone can Google Mormon polygamy and learn more than theyd ever need to know about that practice, about its abandonment, the subsequent fallout, and so on. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. Would love to hear your stories about her. Two decades ago, Maxine Hanks could not have imagined where her spiritual journey would take her, but she knew this much: She would not likely be walking into the waters of Mormon baptism. 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. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and writing about the biblical oracle Isaiah's prophecies about our time has been rebaptized into the faith. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. [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. That was my decision. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . Then he made copies of his letter and Hanks letter and dropped them off at the offices of Vern Anderson and Peggy Fletcher Stack, a former Sunstone editor who had become a religion reporter for 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 . He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. [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. These men are often referred to by Mormon faithful as the Brethren. Unlike local lay leaders, who hold secular day jobs and perform their ecclesiastical duties on a voluntary basis, they are full-time employees who oversee the global operations of the church. She is in the right family. by Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) 06-23-2015. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. He never wrote another work of fiction. Dated Oct. 23, 1830, the letter was addressed to an early Mormon convert named W.W. Phelps and signed Martin Harris. The main target of the statement, issued in August 1991, was the Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering started by Sunstone magazine 12 years before. He took a fellowship at the Huntington Library, near his hometown of Pasadena, Calif., and began indexing his enormous collection of notes on old Mormon documents, in preparation for his next book. . After it was published, Hugh West, the president of his stake in Salt Lake CityQuinn never moved to Provo, finding the hourlong commute worth it to live in Utahs one metropolisasked to see him. Hanks told him he had been excommunicated, and said that the court lasted six hours. The most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. See Photos. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. They were receptive. She's been covering religion for the paper since 1991 taking on a variety of topics, but mostly the LDS Church. Hanks became less diplomatic. Earlier this year, Maxine Hanks became the first of the September Six to fully return to the Mormon Church since the conservative outlier Avraham Gileadi was quietly rebaptized almost two decades ago. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church.