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. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? But Robertson is especially pleased with the "Pillars" session. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. Every morning he worked there was Christmas morning, Quinn says. Peggy Fletcher Stack | The Christian Century Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. 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. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. 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. Ill come get him. . Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. No way. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. 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. I might have lost my soul, but at least I still have my mind. 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. Stack has received and been nominated for multiple awards. We had been home about 20 minutes when two high counselors came to our house and delivered a letter, inviting me to a disciplinary hearing two weeks from that day. By Peggy Fletcher Stack By David Noyce For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Mormon church has excommunicated one of its top leaders. 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. Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return | Out of Obscurity By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. "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 . 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. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? 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 A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. Daryl Peveto/Luceo Images for Slate. KRE/AMB END STACK [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] 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. (Benson died in 94, Hunter in 95.) PDF Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. But the cause didn't really matter because it was pretty clear that Elder [Boyd K.] Packer [of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles] was trying to send a message by targeting certain people, such as historians and feminists. (He was delivering the third bombto whom it is not entirely clearwhen it blew up accidentally.) A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. West did not formally revoke the recommend, he just put it in his drawer. In the first few days after the bombings, several people who had come into contact with Hofmann feared for their lives. Maybe she wants to be, though. 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. How did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grow so fast 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. This is not entirely uncommon in Mormon culture, but Quinn took it sincerely to heart. 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. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. 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. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. 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. She was the editor of Hastings Center Report from 1986 until 1991, when she was hired to start the "Faith" column in the Salt Lake Tribune. Hanks became conciliatory, reading On Being a Mormon Historian, and writing to say hed gotten from it deeper insight into your devotion and your dedication to history and the Church. He asked again to meet when Quinn came back to Utah. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. Fixed: Release in which this issue/RFE has been fixed.The release containing this fix may be available for download as an Early Access Release or a General Availability Release. LDS author disfellowshipped - Rick Alan Ross McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. 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. It went back to his college years. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack - WikiMili, The Best Wikipedia Reader In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? . But that was not how he experienced it. I love the church. 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. 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. 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. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. He was housesitting. 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. News. Quinns polygamy essay, meanwhile, produced more trouble for him with LDS leaders. 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. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. Packers notion that those writing church history should share only those things that are faith-promoting is not just intellectually offensive nowit has become quaint, the relic of a time when information was not so freely available. It had been a difficult year. With no regular income to speak of, Quinn moved into his mothers condo in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Hed read the essay about women and the priesthood, and he asked Quinn to speak on the subject at an upcoming fireside, an informal evening meeting often held at Mormon meetinghouses. 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. Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. He never wrote another work of fiction. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. >Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity . Last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Speaking Tubes in the Household of Faith", "A Light Unto the World: Image Building Is Anathema to Christian Living", "From the Editors: Stretching Toward the Light", "From the Editors: A Failure to Communicate", "Church Historian: Evolution of a Calling", "Tales of a true believer: picking up faith along the way", "Books: Mormon Novels Entertain While Teaching Lessons", "Twenty Years Ago in Sunstone: Symbol and Promise", "Peggy Fletcher Stack: Happy 100th to my physicist father, who remains a truth seeker in science and faith", "Utahn who pioneered synthesized stereo sound will receive posthumous Grammy", "Despite Growth, Mormons Find New Hurdles", "Nobody Knows Religion Quite Like Peggy Fletcher Stack", "Religion Newswriters Association honors top religion reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2017 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Winners named in 2018 RNA Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence", "Journalism Awards - Winners and Articles", "The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Local Reporting: The Salt Lake Tribune Staff", "Religion Newswriters Association announces 2008 contest winners", "Religion Newswriters Association names winners of 2015 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2016 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "SL Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack wins top religion reporting prize for fifth year", "Dreams, Dollars, and Dr. Pepper: Allen Roberts & Peggy Fletcher Years (19781980)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peggy_Fletcher_Stack&oldid=1124718303, "Nation's Founders: How Religious Were They? After 20 years, this excommunicated Mormon still attends her LDS ward He recounted what his former stake president, Hugh West, had done when he received what Quinn saw as similar orders from above. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. He froze. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . 'Mormon Land': A scholar who was excommunicated for his - MSN Two years later, he was called as an apostle. 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. Experts authenticated the letter, and Christensen, a devout Mormon, bought it from Hofmann, with plans to donate it to the church. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) All rights reserved. Most memorably, Harris says that the spirit who appeared to Smith and directed him to the golden platesfrom which Smith claimed to have translated Mormonisms founding scriptureappeared as a white salamander and struck Smith three times. 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 handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. I have been doing that for 18 years. He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. Hi, Peggy. Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church . Some did not know that they were. Box 15 miles from where he was staying, and in New Orleans he had it delivered to a receiving center a little ways from his apartment. That's a good question. In many respects, Andersons affirmations mirror those of other members. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack After an exhausting six-hour disciplinary hearing Sunday, Mormon leaders temporarily suspended Grant H. Palmer's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. 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. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. Peggy Fletcher. 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 . High-Ranking Mormon Official, is Excommunicated - Coercion Code 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. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. 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. Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. [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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. We embedded him as thoroughly in the church as we ourselves had been. (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.) It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. In the quarter-century since her ouster, Anderson consistently has attended weekly services at her Latter-day Saint congregation, the Whittier Ward. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. The movie was a live-action adaptation of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. 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 . 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. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. 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. Writer excommunicated during 'September Six' purge loses her bid to 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. Quinn got hate mail. 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. 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. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. 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 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. It's a way for me to participate and contribute, almost like having a calling. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. Peggy Fletcher-Stack. 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. For the next year and a half, Quinn spent hours every week in the archives, taking detailed notes on diaries that belonged to 19th-century Mormon leaders, among other documents. SCHOLAR REBAPTIZED INTO LDS CHURCH - Deseret News That bright line is one of the reasons Mormons still sometimes seem separate from the mainstream of American life even after a century of assimilation. 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. Snuffer was excommunicated. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. 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.. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. People named Peggy Fletcher. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. 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. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. Excommunication has played a significant role throughout the churchs history. I don't think I could have done that graciously. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. ", 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. She was also the only one whose disciplinary council was overseen by her bishop, rather than her stake president. Peggy Fletcher Stack - Wikipedia That was established definitively in 1986 after Hofmann confessed to the murders of Christensen and Sheets as part of a plea to avoid the death penalty. False Prophet Gaining Steam Among a 'Remnant' Church 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. Religion Two decades after she was "exed," Utah writer still attends her LDS ward. What's happening is so wrong. 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. One of the central questions in the aftermath of Septembers events was just how involved Packer himself had been in them. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. memeorandum: High-ranking Mormon official, who twice spoke in General Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017 . To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. If those top leaders did not know where he lived, then they could not assign him to a particular stake, and his church membership could not be threatened. Peggy Fletcher Stack (@religiongal) / Twitter He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. How is Peggy Fletcher Stack still Mormon? : r/exmormon - reddit Peggy Fletcher. All rights reserved. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. Hanks officially came back into the fold in 2012. While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. It took several hoursa vigil was held outside for the first few, with candles and hymns and hot chocolate. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. They were receptive.