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. "Given who I was, there was no place to go but out," Hanks said in 2003, on the 10th anniversary of the excommunications. But that was not how he experienced it. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. He developed a fervent testimony not only that God exists but that God spoke to Joseph Smith face to face and that the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants are, like the Old and New Testaments, divinely inspired. Dear Reader: When I began this series of essays on leadership, I never anticipated the final installment would chronicle recent events that have triggered the biggest spiritual struggle of my life. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. My strong hunch is that she is a cultural Mormon who no longer believes, pays tithing or observes the WoW, and that she's loosey-goosey with her attendance. 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. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. 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. 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. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. 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. 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. 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. In 2004, after a series of fellowships and visiting appointments, he was the only finalist for a tenured position at the University of Utah. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 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. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. Dave: We remind our listeners about a new way to support Mormon Land. 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. I admire her. After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. . Hanks told him he had been excommunicated, and said that the court lasted six hours. 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. In September, Hanks wrote Quinn another letter, saying that he had listened, twice, to a recording of Quinns paper about the Baseball Baptism Program, delivered at the Sunstone Symposium that summer. Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? He moved back to Utah and began receiving mail at his actual address. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. False Prophet Gaining Steam Among a 'Remnant' Church In May 1993, apostle Boyd K. Packer said the church's three greatest threats came from feminists, gays and intellectuals. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. (He also, as it happens, officiated at the wedding of my parents.) 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. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. Ill come get him. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. He normalized what many call "sinful" behavior, by admitting to looking at nudie mags, drinking, smoking, and intimated other transgressions, yet still going on a mission. An interview from January 1983: Sterling M. McMurrin : mormon 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. She did, however, tell her leaders her concerns about church exclusion policies: barring worthy LGBTQ couples who are legally married from full participation; blocking worthy and righteous women from the male-only priesthood; and keeping Mother in Heaven from her place in our understanding.. 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. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. 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. Hanks became less diplomatic. 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. There are other matters that I need to talk with you about that are not related to your historical writings. If the blessing really happened, then Brigham Young, who led the early Mormons to Utah, might have been wrong to seize control of the church after Smiths murder. My dad was a bishop twice. Peggy Fletcher. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. They divorced soon after. Hanks was accused of apostasy for editing an anthology, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, which included a discussion of the all-male priesthood and womens relationship to it. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. Grant, an LDS Church president, a granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah, Wallace F. Bennett, and a granddaughter of American physicist Harvey Fletcher. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . by Peggy Fletcher Stack. Quinn was convinced, in any case, that his fate in any disciplinary council was predetermined, that Boyd K. Packer wanted him out of the church and Hanks was going to make it happen. 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. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. Few people had attended the talk itself, but an independent BYU newspaper ran a story about it, and copies of Quinns remarks, titled On Being a Mormon Historian, began to circulate. 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. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.". She was also the only one whose disciplinary council was overseen by her bishop, rather than her stake president. June 17, 2014 8:59 pm . 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. 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. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. 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. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. I did. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. That last comment became the caption for a Newsweek photo three months later, when the magazines religion reporter, Kenneth L. Woodward, wrote a 1,000-word story about Quinns talk and the controversy it prompted. 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. Quinns status in the church remained unchanged. 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. 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. But it was a forgery. After it was published, Hugh West, the president of his stake in Salt Lake CityQuinn never moved to Provo, finding the hourlong commute worth it to live in Utahs one metropolisasked to see him. There was no process for voluntary withdrawal from the Mormon Church in the 1960s, so each of these kids had to be excommunicatedtechnically, for apostasy. He went to stay instead with an old college friend, Richard Lambert. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. . In the quarter-century since her ouster, Anderson consistently has attended weekly services at her Latter-day Saint congregation, the Whittier Ward. 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. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. In 1975 Stack helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies, and steered it for its first eleven years. Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. I assumed there was a way to work it out. Experts authenticated the letter, and Christensen, a devout Mormon, bought it from Hofmann, with plans to donate it to the church. Some did not know that they were. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. What I heard was that I would be excommunicated and that I shouldn't go. PDF Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. . She currently serves on the . Taking the sacrament because it's an exclusion I feel every single week. The LDS archives became more open to scholars than ever before, and Arrington oversaw research and writing by fellow academics and graduate studentsincluding Quinn, then 28, whom he hired as an assistant. The September Six were six members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who were excommunicated or disfellowshipped by the church in September 1993, allegedly for publishing scholarly work against or criticizing church doctrine or leadership. I could listen to the spirit there. 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. 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. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. In it, Harris, who paid for the first printing of the Book of Mormon, tells a story of that books origins strikingly different from Smiths later, official account. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. This is not entirely uncommon in Mormon culture, but Quinn took it sincerely to heart. Peggy Fletcher Stack / Salt Lake Tribune: High-ranking Mormon official, who twice spoke in General Conference, is excommunicated Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. Two years later, he was called as an apostle. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. She studied "traditional, sacramental Christianity and priesthood," Hanks said this week. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. Peggy Fletcher was raised in New Jersey, daughter of physicist Robert Chipman Fletcher and Rosemary Bennett, one of five girls and three boys. Re: Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" 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. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. 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. (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 . He visited these homes with his missionary companion and asked the boys if they still wanted to be Mormons. [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. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating, the worldwide effort to bring salvation to all of Gods children, Some things that are true are not very useful, LDS Authority and New Plural Marriages, 18901904, this growing conflict between leaders and intellectuals, Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood Since 1843, Quinns paper about the Baseball Baptism Program, the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the church, critical pieces he had written about Mitt Romney, Hanks described her path back to Mormonism, the administration caved to pressure from Ira Fulton. 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. It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. The former LDS stake president, who oversaw a group of Mormon congregations in Tooele for eight years and worked as an architect on her faith's most sacred spaces, faced, in her mind, an impossible choice: Either return to living as a man or resign her . They don't feel safe enough to keep going it's such a terrible, terrible loss. 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. The fact that we keep going to church is a blessing. Dated Oct. 23, 1830, the letter was addressed to an early Mormon convert named W.W. Phelps and signed Martin Harris. I asked Quinn this past summer if he thought the provocations he penned as a historian might have been fueled on some level by his own inner conflict with Mormon teachingsif perhaps, unconsciously, he wanted to force a showdown with church authorities. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. Demographics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Threat of Excommunication During Quinns college years, BYUs president, Ernest Wilkinson, organized a student spy ring intended to catch out professors with communist leanings. 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.
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