But gradually, pressure on Mormon scholars eased, and today many write and publish without any obvious concern for what their stake presidents might think. I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. (Rick Bowmer/AP) This article is more than 8 years old. Quinn wrote back more harshly this time, listing all the things Hanks had done that troubled him. Her sincere belief in Jesus and determination to follow him no matter the adversity faced within or without the church should be commended, and this good and faithful servant should be rewarded, he wrote. My own name remains on the rolls of the church, and I plan to leave it there, though I stopped believing in the Mormon gospel 15 years ago. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. But Robertson is especially pleased with the "Pillars" session. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. 9:30AM EDT 8/29/2017 Peggy Fletcher Stack/RNS. During Quinns college years, BYUs president, Ernest Wilkinson, organized a student spy ring intended to catch out professors with communist leanings. She said hello, but he did not recognize her. She is in the right family. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. After organizing a massive campaign to pass Proposition 8 and make gay marriage illegal in California, for instance, the church suffered a massive backlash and has since appeared more tolerant toward gay rights activism. 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. [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. She was told to pass along this message: Im tired of hearing him criticize the church. 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. Paul Toscanos sister-in-law was excommunicated for her writings about the Heavenly Mother, a controversial aspect of Mormon theology. I assured him I did not. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. 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. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. The president in 2012, when Hanks was readmitted, was Thomas S. Monson. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. Quinn was so depressed by the experience that for a few weeks he lost his belief in God completely. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. She studied "traditional, sacramental Christianity and priesthood," Hanks said this week. 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. All rights reserved. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. Where a skeptic sees convenience, a believer may see Gods hand. He acknowledged to me that, of course, it is possible to find outlets for service outside of Mormonism. Which has also, it seems, made Michael Quinns singular focus on the unspoken parts of the Mormon past less relevant to younger historians, who operate with more freedom and less pressureand who draw far more interest than their predecessors from the wider world, which has suddenly become fascinated by Mormonism. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. 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. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. Quinns religious status wouldofficially, at leastbe decided by his own stake president, not by the higher-ups in Salt Lake City. If the blessing really happened, then Brigham Young, who led the early Mormons to Utah, might have been wrong to seize control of the church after Smiths murder. My parents never blamed me, but they were heartbroken. Mormonism was as much an identity issue for them as it is for me. I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. 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. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. 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. West said hed been told by a higher authority to take further action to remedy the situation, Quinn says. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 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. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. 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. Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. There was no process for voluntary withdrawal from the Mormon Church in the 1960s, so each of these kids had to be excommunicatedtechnically, for apostasy. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was not. 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. As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. The book he was finishing, which would be published in 1994, was called The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. I know how to avoid people I didnt want to be in contact with, he says. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. 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. "She might be a model for others who have been missing their Mormon community.". . 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. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. 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. These are very sensitive and highly confidential and this is why I have not mentioned them before in writing. Hanks alluded to these matters in subsequent letters, but never explicitly said that he had Quinns sexuality in mind. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. There are other matters that I need to talk with you about that are not related to your historical writings. Peggy Fletcher was raised in New Jersey, daughter of physicist Robert Chipman Fletcher and Rosemary Bennett, one of five girls and three boys. Some things that are true are not very useful. Its not clear whether Packer read Quinns work before interviewing him, but if he did, it probably would have struck him as less than useful. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. Snuffer was excommunicated. When I make comments in Sunday school and Relief Society, they are accepted as anyone else's. 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. 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 has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. (He also, as it happens, officiated at the wedding of my parents.) The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. Ill come get him. The most threatening thing about Ordain Women to people in the church is that it is coming from faithful, devout, courageous, wonderful women and that's more threatening than anything could be. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) ", 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]. But he could no longer go to the temple. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. Though the letter from the current First Presidency made up of church President Russell M. Nelson and counselors Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring offered no explanation for the rejection, Bowman speculates that there may be at least two possible answers history and dissent. It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. Article type . 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. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. 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. Just before his excommunication, in the spring of 1993, Quinn bore his testimony at the singles ward he was attending each week in Westwood, near UCLA. At its worst, such talk is sometimes called speaking evil of the Lords anointed.. The meaning of EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. 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. I was not surprised or angry about the outcome, Anderson said Wednesday, and she has no plans to try to open that door again. 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. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? 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. 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. How have the members of your ward treated you? By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . The other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. He was excommunicated by the LDS Church in 2013 for refusing to cease publication of his 2011 book, Passing the Heavenly Gift which challenges many points of LDS orthodoxy. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. Quinns polygamy essay, meanwhile, produced more trouble for him with LDS leaders. He normalized what many call "sinful" behavior, by admitting to looking at nudie mags, drinking, smoking, and intimated other transgressions, yet still going on a mission. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". Find your friends on Facebook. I have been taught a vision of a truly cooperative future where men and women are complete equals. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. by Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) 06-23-2015. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. 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. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. Would love to hear your stories about her. 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. In the spring, he had published LDS Authority and New Plural Marriages, 18901904, the culmination of his interest in post-1890 polygamy, first prompted a quarter-century before by Family Kingdom. 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. The bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. 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. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. [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. 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. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. One of the central questions in the aftermath of Septembers events was just how involved Packer himself had been in them. The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. This made some church leaders uneasy. I love John and I support him, but I have never made any claim against truth claims of the church. 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. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. He didn't seem to know what footnotes are so he thought I made the whole thing up. A candlelight vigil was held outside the Salt Lake City meetinghouse where it took place. Peggy Fletcher. 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 . or. [Husband] Paul, Christian [their son] and I sang in the choir that day. Using the familiar Christian metaphor of a lost sheep who listens for the one voice that can guide it back home, Oaks said Mormons should beware of alternate voices whose avowed or secret object is to deceive and devour the flock. Among the voices Oaks warned about were the ones heard in magazines, journals, and newspapers and at lectures, symposia, and conferences. At the same General Conference, another apostle said that a true stalwart of the church would not lend his or her good name to periodicals, programs, or forums that feature offenders who do sow discord among brethren. , When the Sunstone Symposium next convened, in the summer of 92, Lavina Fielding Anderson presented a paper on this growing conflict between leaders and intellectuals. Every morning he worked there was Christmas morning, Quinn says. 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. My searching was complete. In many respects, Andersons affirmations mirror those of other members. disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. I didn't have any doubts. 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. The Salt Lake Tribune . The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. But that was not how he experienced it. 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.. 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. 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 . It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. 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. He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. His hiring was vetoed by the ASU administration, and many observers believe the administration caved to pressure from Ira Fulton, a Mormon donor who between 2003 and 2006 gave at least $155 million to the school. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. The LDS archives became more open to scholars than ever before, and Arrington oversaw research and writing by fellow academics and graduate studentsincluding Quinn, then 28, whom he hired as an assistant. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry.. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. He has not been since. Caffeinated Version: Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. . The entry for perversion said See homosexuality, and he read all the available books in that categorynot a lot in a small public library in 1956, though fairly heady stuff for a 12-year-old: Kinseys Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, some Freud, some Havelock Ellis. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . If there is unfinished business, its the First Presidencys, not mine.. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). Last month, for instance, the Daily Beast reported that a blogger named David Twede was facing excommunication because of critical pieces he had written about Mitt Romney. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. I could imagine the First Presidency thinking that this is not an episode worth revisiting, Bowman wrote in an email. ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . [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. We appreciate the search for knowledge and the discussion of gospel subjects, the First Presidency said. She's been covering religion for the paper since 1991 taking on a variety of topics, but mostly the LDS Church. He stinks.. It was run by William O. Nelson, he said, once an assistant to Ezra Taft Benson who now reported to Boyd K. Packer. 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.