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. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. And he based at least one of his forgeries on the work of Michael Quinn. Disciplinary councils still happen, though they appear to be less frequent, particularly when it comes to apostasy. In California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. 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. He left it up to local leaders to come up with a reason. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. [5] They moved to Utah in 1991 when she was hired to be the religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune, where much of her reporting has focused on the LDS Church. McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . 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. At first, his timing appeared serendipitous: In 1972, while he was completing a masters in history at the University of Utah, an academic named Leonard Arrington was appointed church historian. I did the very best I knew how to do, the thing that I felt was the right thing to do., Donate to the newsroom now. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. Paul usually sits on the outside of the pew, so when the sacrament comes, he shakes his head toward me so we don't have any socially embarrassing moments. Quinn was an ordinance worker, meaning he went to the temple regularly and helped others perform those rites. Salt Lake City Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the LDS Church for being a woman. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. 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. 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. And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. That, in any case, was his thinking. Ill come get him. That has been a blessing truly fulfilled. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. It had been a difficult year. . 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Her explorations gave Hanks a new level of understanding and "testimony" of Mormonism. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. 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. Excommunication has played a significant role throughout the churchs history. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service 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. They were receptive. 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. I felt they were not going to drive me away. 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. ", 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]. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. 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. Jay Christian, left, and thousands of other people protest against the passage of Californias Proposition 8 outside the world headquarters of Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah. 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.. 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. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. 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. Some did not know that they were. He was excommunicated in 1911. Stack is an advisor on religion to the Public Broadcasting Service,[2] and has written two books. However, I do not see that eternal equality reflected in the contemporary church.". 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. I have been taught a vision of a truly cooperative future where men and women are complete equals. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. In 1975 Stack helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies, and steered it for its first eleven years. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. He has not been since. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. But it was a forgery. TV and newspaper reporters came. This made some church leaders uneasy. Excommunication Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. Quinn got hate mail. 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. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. After the church court, when I walked into the chapel, it took about three times longer to get to my seat because so many people hugged me. 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. 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. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. 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. (He was delivering the third bombto whom it is not entirely clearwhen it blew up accidentally.) Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. >Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity . The Strengthening Church Members Committee almost certainly passed along notes about Quinn to his new stake president, Paul Hanks, in early 1993. . It sent him down a rabbit hole. All rights reserved. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. 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. SCHOLAR REBAPTIZED INTO LDS CHURCH - Deseret News Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. Hymns were sung. There is a peace that comes with that kind of clarity. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". It was, Quinn told me, an awful, awful year., When he had recovered enough to write, Quinn finished the sequel to The Mormon Hierarchy and revised Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview. 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. Sometimes Stack refers to Salt Lake City . Threat of Excommunication . 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? A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. 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. After 20 years, this excommunicated Mormon still attends her LDS ward The president in 2012, when Hanks was readmitted, was Thomas S. Monson. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. It went back to his college years. At Yale, while serving as one of two counselors to the local bishop, he found unanswered letters in the wards files from people who wished to leave the church. Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. In 2001, a long-standing effort called the Joseph Smith Papers Project received additional funding and became a major draw to those who wished to study the early days of the church. . "We pray that a spirit of clemency will guide the words and actions of everyone especially those who bear the heavy responsibility of ecclesiastical discipline of church members and that the words of President [Dieter F.] Uchtdorf [second counselor in faith's governing First Presidency] will hold sway: "Regardless of your circumstances, your personal history, or the strength of your testimony, there is room for you in this church. 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. She is in the right family. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On March 23, 2018, Andersons husband, Paul, died of heart failure. 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. 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. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. [5] She then received a fellowship to work in the Church History Division of the LDS Church (then run by Leonard J. 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. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. 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. (There is no conclusive evidence it took place, Quinn writes, but he does not dismiss the idea of one outright.) She's been covering religion for the paper since 1991 taking on a variety of topics, but mostly the LDS Church. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. Excommunicated Mormon to tell how she came back to the faith These dangers, Packer said, were the relatively new feminist and gay-lesbian movements, and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals.. 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. And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. Even after that, a few high-ranking Mormons continued to authorize such marriages. After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. He was in a wheelchair. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. Peggy Fletcher Stack - WikiMili, The Best Wikipedia Reader Later that evening, having dinner alone, he felt a new sense of relief about what had happened so far and what he believed was about to happen. June 17, 2014 8:59 pm . The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. I did. Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. Still, he sought out the scriptures first edition himself, and did his own comparison. Hanks officially came back into the fold in 2012. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. In 2004, after a series of fellowships and visiting appointments, he was the only finalist for a tenured position at the University of Utah. 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. 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. Packer, the second-most senior among the 12, was the substitute president of the Quorum of the Twelve whenever Hunter was sidelined for medical reasons. 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. His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. For the faithful, the simplest narrative regarding LDS polygamy is that God wanted Mormons to practice it between 1843when He revealed the doctrine of plural marriage to Joseph Smithand 1890, when He informed one of Smiths successors, Wilford Woodruff, of a change in course. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. Peggy Fletcher Stack has been reporting on faith and religion since 1991. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. Quinn attended that ward in Westwood every week while he was in California. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. During the hiring process, a college dean offered to protect him, Quinn says, from those peoplethe LDS leadersup in Salt Lake., Before he could be hired, though, he had to visit LDS headquarters at 47 East South Temple in downtown Salt Lake and sit for an interview with one of those peoplespecifically, a general authority, one of the 100 or so men who run the church. 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. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. The fact that we keep going to church is a blessing. As a Mormon, he also knew that same-sex attraction was considered unfortunate at bestsomething to be struggled with, and, if possible, overcome. 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. I always felt that I had Gods sanction and encouragement, so I went ahead following that path. Even early on, a fellow Mormon historian started telling Quinn he must have a death wish regarding his membership in the church. After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. 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. 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. Arrington). Or a great one, if possible: Since childhood, Quinn had been told by his grandmother that someday he would be an apostle of the church. Local TV reporters were filming the session, and the AP reporter Vern Anderson was sitting at the far side of the room about halfway back. Where a skeptic sees convenience, a believer may see Gods hand. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. It will be published next year. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. 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. 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. The stake president, a man named Paul Hanks, tried to step into the apartment as he said hello, Quinn recalls. Bad marriages had women running to and away from . Peggy Fletcher Stack. I used to think Steve Benson was a bad person. One theory on that first day of panic was that the bombings were connected with the business, an investment company called CFS. "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . 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. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. Kelly was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in June. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. 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 . Vern Anderson wrote an AP story about the book, and several Utah papers carried reviews. By Peggy Fletcher Stack and David Noyce Sep. 7, 2022 What this sociologist (Darron Smith) and Peggy Fletcher Stack fail to recognize is that Mormon racism isn't in the past, it's in the present. He acknowledged to me that, of course, it is possible to find outlets for service outside of Mormonism. LDS bloggers issue statement of support More than 70 Mormon bloggers, representing a dozen or more websites, have signed a document, "Room for All in This Church," calling for "clemency" in the upcoming disciplinary councils for Kate Kelly and John Dehlin. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. (KUTV) Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion writer for the The Salt Lake Tribune.It's the best beat on the paper, she said.Stack fell into the job when she was hired in 1991.I have no degree in . Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? I go over the temple ceremony and the covenants in my mind and remake them before the Lord often. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. The institutional churchs position toward its intellectual community has shifted slowly and subtly but in real ways in the past 30 years; it is possible that there is a worry that allowing for her rebaptism would unearth battles the present First Presidency would like to let lie buried and spur a public relitigation of the issue., Secondly, the controversies surrounding Anderson had a great deal to do with feminism in the church and with ecclesiastical dissent, he said. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. . 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.. I assumed there was a way to work it out. Especially considering that in a lot of cases she's the one doing the exposing My guess is she's a let's-reform-this-baby-from-within progressive. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. 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. Years ago, Don Bradley, a longtime scholar of Mormon history, asked to have his name removed from LDS membership rolls when participation became uncomfortable. Would love to hear your stories about her. As Quinn writes, the Manifesto inherited ambiguity, was created in ambiguity, and produced ambiguity.. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. Quinns status in the church remained unchanged. If Peggy wanted to do some groundbreaking . See Photos. I love the gospel. By the time Quinn arrived, the program had been disavowed, and many of these baptisms needed to be undone. 9:30AM EDT 8/29/2017 Peggy Fletcher Stack/RNS. Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. He visited these homes with his missionary companion and asked the boys if they still wanted to be Mormons. 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. In 1961, when Michael Quinn was a devout Mormon of 17, his best friends girlfriend gave him a copy of Family Kingdom, a biography of the one-time apostle John W. Taylor. Lavina Fielding Anderson decided not to appear at her court, either, which took place at another Salt Lake meetinghouse a few days afterward.
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