Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. When they did, Quinn, an only child, would go to his room, put on a classical record, and turn the volume up. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. 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 . Where else would I be but in the church? 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. 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. 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. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . This has been intentional. But the Churchs case against Twede will never be known: After the Daily Beast story, the council was postponed, and a few weeks later, Twede resigned from the faith. PDF Peggy fletcher stack excommunicated - World Tile The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. We had a family devotional every night with prayer, singing and scripture reading. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. 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. McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. I know how to avoid people I didnt want to be in contact with, he says. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. Quinns mother, on the other hand, was a sixth-generation Mormon: She had an ancestor who converted when the Mormons were still in Nauvoo, Ill., and who is mentioned in Joseph Smiths journals. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. And the Tribune is changing with it. 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. 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. The essay, Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood Since 1843, cites writings by Joseph Smith and other early church documents to argue that women already possess much of the spiritual authority granted to men, and that todays LDS leaders simply fail to recognize this. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service - Page 5 of 6 But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. 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. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. She's been covering religion for the paper since 1991 taking on a variety of topics, but mostly the LDS Church. He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. This made some church leaders uneasy. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. 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. 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. With his background in education, he became interested in how the church taught its own past, and decided he did not like what was going on at the church historians office. There are other matters that I need to talk with you about that are not related to your historical writings. 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. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. 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. That higher-ranking leader, James Paramore, had further instructed West to say that the decision was Wests own, and had not come from above. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. 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.. But gradually, pressure on Mormon scholars eased, and today many write and publish without any obvious concern for what their stake presidents might think. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. West said hed been told by a higher authority to take further action to remedy the situation, Quinn says. 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. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? 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. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. The field has grown and appears to have moved on, even though the research that Quinn did, and the fights that he picked, were crucial to what has come in his wake. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. One theory on that first day of panic was that the bombings were connected with the business, an investment company called CFS. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. 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. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. If Peggy wanted to do some groundbreaking . Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. The bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. Gileadi, a Hebrew scholar who got into trouble for unorthodox writings about the biblical Isaiah, was rebaptized within several years. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. Those 15 men oversee the multiple Quorums of the Seventy, who in turn direct the stake presidents and bishops who minister to congregations on a part-time, voluntary basis. [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. 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. As a Mormon, he also knew that same-sex attraction was considered unfortunate at bestsomething to be struggled with, and, if possible, overcome. Some did not know that they were. After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. The Mormon intellectual community far and wide is mourning the loss of Linda King Newell. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. A missionary who doesn't want to preach false doctrine During Quinns New Orleans years, the First Presidency put out a statement discouraging Mormons from participating in academic conferences and other independent forums devoted to the discussion of their faith. But nothing else has driven him to contribute to the lives of others the way the faith in which he was born and raised once did. The biggest thing that got me was the excommunication of bill reel segment of the Mormon stories podcast. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. The men at his door were the local stake president and his two counselors, the men responsible for overseeing all the congregations in the area. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.". In May 1993, apostle Boyd K. Packer said the church's three greatest threats came from feminists, gays and intellectuals. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. . The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. With no regular income to speak of, Quinn moved into his mothers condo in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Experts authenticated the letter, and Christensen, a devout Mormon, bought it from Hofmann, with plans to donate it to the church. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. 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. Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. Right next to Pauls was Lavinas description of her beliefs in Jesus Christ, Mormon founder Joseph Smith, the scriptural text he produced, The Book of Mormon, and the role of prophets. A Response to Peggy Fletcher Stack about OSF Finances How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. It's Judgment Day for Far Right: LDS Church Purges Survivalists Hanks told him he had been excommunicated, and said that the court lasted six hours. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. How did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grow so fast P The Sunstone Symposium runs July 25-28 at the University of Utah's Olpin Student Union. An interview from January 1983: Sterling M. McMurrin : mormon It went back to his college years. He rejected the idea that his writings and his comments to reporters about Mormon history warranted disciplinary action, and he had come to a kind of peace about what he was sure awaited him. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. 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. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But by the fall of 92 he had to return to Salt Lake City to finish research on the book, and he had grown tired of hiding from church authorities. Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. 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. Lavina Fielding Anderson, one of the famed September Six writers and scholars disciplined by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1993, got a big no last week to her request for rebaptism from the men who matter most: the faiths governing First Presidency. Bradley and Hanks are friends who trod a lot of common ground, Robertson said. Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. And he based at least one of his forgeries on the work of Michael Quinn. A World of Faith: Stack, Peggy F., Peterson, Kathleen B.: 9781560851622 This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. 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. 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. I see her articles on here all the time and the Tribune has never really been a friend to the TSCC. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. 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. 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. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. or. All rights reserved. Writer excommunicated during 'September Six' purge loses her bid to [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. I assumed there was a way to work it out. It is also worth noting that the church president in 1993 was an ailing Ezra Taft Benson. 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. memeorandum: High-ranking Mormon official, who twice spoke in General I cannot be anything but a Mormon. 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. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . He asked Quinn to come see him in his office after work one day, Quinn says. Peggy Fletcher Stack has been reporting on faith and religion since 1991. The Mormon church is organized into congregations called wards; a group of these is called a stake. I had never been treated as a liar before. 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. His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. (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.) Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? Then she was accused of apostasy for editing an anthology, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, which included a discussion of the all-male LDS priesthood and women's relationship to it. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. 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. On Tuesday morning, James J. Hamula was released from his position in the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after disciplinary Excommunicated Mormon to tell how she came back to the faith What's it like going to church for two decades as an excommunicated member? Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. Hed better start keeping it to himself. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. 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. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. By then, Quinn had more or less moved on. A second bomb that first day killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of one of Christensens former business partners. 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 California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. 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. The most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. Hankswhose nephew Paul would show up on Quinns doorstep in 1993was himself a general authority, and he had overseen the two-year Mormon mission Quinn served in England after his freshman year at BYU. False Prophet Gaining Steam Among a 'Remnant' Church ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. While preparing for the retired Brigham Young University artists memorial service, Bishop Mahonri Madrigal read Pauls written testimony, or statements of faith, that the ward had compiled in 2000. Daryl Peveto/Luceo Images for Slate. And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. LDS author disfellowshipped - Rick Alan Ross The charge stems from Palmer's 2002 book, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, which challenges the traditional explanations of the faith's founding . I might have lost my soul, but at least I still have my mind. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was not. 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. 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. 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. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. But that was not how he experienced it. We embedded him as thoroughly in the church as we ourselves had been. That, in any case, was his thinking. Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. When I make comments in Sunday school and Relief Society, they are accepted as anyone else's. Quinn was an ordinance worker, meaning he went to the temple regularly and helped others perform those rites.