By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. Whitesides says that Connie Chungs people asked her to take a hidden camera into her court. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . The former LDS stake president, who oversaw a group of congregations in Tooele for eight years and worked as an architect on her faith's most sacred spaces, faced, in her mind, an . Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. The stake president, a man named Paul Hanks, tried to step into the apartment as he said hello, Quinn recalls. The temple president tried to make it as good an experience as he could for my parents, Paul, Christian and Marina [his bride] and me. But it was a forgery. Quinn, who later assisted the police in their investigation, did not go home for several days. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. In California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. Just go to . Peggy Fletcher. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. Quinns polygamy essay, meanwhile, produced more trouble for him with LDS leaders. [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. 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. [3][4][5] She was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), with her father traveling and speaking as a member of the stake high council. He was excommunicated in 1911. 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. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. She said she was really angry at the church, not at me. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. In the early 90s, when he was living in New Orleans, Quinn, nearing his 50th birthday, tried his hand at fiction, going back to the literature he once studied as an undergraduate. In the late 60s, he was called to preside over the churchs missionary efforts in New England, and moved with his family to Cambridge, Mass. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. Whats more, all Mormons are supposed to have a calling in the church, which makes for a wonderfully participatory religion but also discourages casual membership. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. . 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. [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. Some, perhaps, simply regretted the bad press. 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. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. He didn't seem to know what footnotes are so he thought I made the whole thing up. That, in any case, was his thinking. That's a good question. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. I have been doing that for 18 years. They dont acquire these positions by filling out an application and sending in a rsum. 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. 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. At least, that's how Hall sees it. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. Snuffer was excommunicated. 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. 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. 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. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. 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. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. 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. 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.. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. 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. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. 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. The Salt Lake Tribune . The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. 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. We appreciate the search for knowledge and the discussion of gospel subjects, the First Presidency said. 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. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. 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. It sent him down a rabbit hole. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. 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. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. 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. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" Again, I'm reminded of a scene in "Schindler's List" where the 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. At Sunstone, Hanks described her path back to Mormonism as a heros journey, la Joseph Campbell. Quinn told friends that he did not want anyone to lobby on his behalf. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. With no regular income to speak of, Quinn moved into his mothers condo in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Grant, an LDS Church president, a granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah, Wallace F. Bennett, and a granddaughter of American physicist Harvey Fletcher. He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. I assumed there was a way to work it out. See Photos. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. Robert Kirby does this also, but much more indirectly. 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. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. [4] During her time there, she has met and interviewed the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Gordon B. Hinckley, among others. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. ", Hanks is a "genuinely spiritual person and quite insightful, who brings a type of spirituality with her that will resonate with lots of people," he said. 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 . Mormons devote one sacrament meeting each month to personal testimonies, and Quinn was sure this would be his last opportunity to offer his in church. What's happening is so wrong. No way. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. The meaning of EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. . After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." 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. The latter, a smaller school, offered less money, but BYU had its own drawbacks: It was and is a conservative place, politically as well as religiously. 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. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. Quinn was already on the alert for such wrinkles in the churchs history. 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. Bad marriages had women running to and away from . The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. In the summer of 1952, the late Sterling McMurrin, an eminent philosopher and writer, met with two LDS apostles to defend his theological views.With complete candor, McMurrin laid out for Elders Joseph Fielding Smith and Harold . Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. That came out in early 1993. Vern Anderson wrote an AP story about the book, and several Utah papers carried reviews. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. He also mentioned reading Quinns long Dialogue article about the politics of Ezra Taft Benson. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. Just prior to reading Family Kingdom hed seen an anti-Mormon pamphlet called The Book of Mormon Examined, which highlighted hundreds of changes Joseph Smith made to the Mormon scripture in its first few printings. 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. He revised the story occasionally over the next decade, submitting it unsuccessfully to the Paris Review and the Atlantic. Nor does it read like one. How have the members of your ward treated you? 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. Looking back, it was a real blessing. 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.. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. They were eventually published, without Quinns permission, by two prominent anti-Mormon activists, Jerald and Sandra Tanner. It was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. A church spokesman told him that it did exist, and the First Presidency issued a formal statement about it the following week. It will be published next year. 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. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. 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. A candlelight vigil was held outside the Salt Lake City meetinghouse where it took place. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. Article type . The book he was finishing, which would be published in 1994, was called The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. He hopes that eventually hell manage to sell the condo and will get enough money for it that he could move back to New Orleans and live there for the last couple decades, God willing, of his life. He has occasionally attended other churches. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. 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. I hate him. He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. ", "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. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. These three shocks to Quinns testimonyabout the Book of Mormon, polygamy, and LDS theologyspurred a pursuit to unearth and understand those parts of his religions past that complicated the simpler story of the faith he had learned as a child. Find your friends on Facebook. 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. Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. 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. (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. All rights reserved. (He took the surname from actor Anthony Quinn, whom he knew growing up in the Los Angeles barrio.) He wept as he read it aloud to others. 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. by Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. I did. She was told to pass along this message: Im tired of hearing him criticize the church. "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 . 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. That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. Peggy Fletcher-Stack. 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. He said it was apostasy because I believed that general authorities had done something wrong. 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. 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. In his Yale dissertation, Quinn examined the highest leadership of the LDS church as a social elite, focusing on the extensive family ties within the hierarchy, the considerable wealth of Mormon authorities, and their long-standing involvement in politics. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. This made some church leaders uneasy. It really hurt my feelings. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. She has participated as much as she was able playing the piano and singing in the choir and watched as seven lay bishops have come and gone. By declining to talk with any priesthood leaders, he wrote, you are cutting yourself off from the blessings of the Temple and the blessings of the priesthood. He insinuated that the churchs problems with Quinn were not all theological. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. [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. The four-day symposium, which begins Wednesday evening, also will include dozens of sessions about Mormonism and politics, about how members grapple with contemporary issues such as gay rights and feminism, building online LDS communities, Mormon Latino views of the church's immigration stance and how the Utah-based faith has developed its "brand" in the past several decades. 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 is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. He had also just published an article titled The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844, which detailed the confusion about who should succeed Joseph Smith after his assassination. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. 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. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. We had stake [regional] conference in September. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. This other Quinn was not home when the call came, and a baby-sitter answered the phone. 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. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . By Chris Jorgensen and Peggy Fletcher Stack The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is purging hundreds of Mormon dissidents who church officials say are preoccupied unduly with Armageddon. I cannot be anything but a Mormon. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks told The Salt Lake Tribune that year. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. If he doesnt, I have his phone number and I know where he lives. 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. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. 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. 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. Quinns religious status wouldofficially, at leastbe decided by his own stake president, not by the higher-ups in Salt Lake City. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. They divorced soon after. The other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. 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. "It will be a chance for a larger audience to hear this story," she said, and to hear how people can wrestle with their faith and then live it out. She said hello, but he did not recognize her. People named Peggy Fletcher. He decided that only 16 of the changes were significant. 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. He acknowledged to me that, of course, it is possible to find outlets for service outside of Mormonism. He loves cities, and when he lived in New Orleans in the early 90s, he made friends in bars and in an informal group of gay professionals who gathered once a month. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. 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.