Daryl Peveto/Luceo Images for Slate. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. The timing of his career, which once appeared serendipitous, now seems almost cruel. Maybe she wants to be, though. 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. Quinn got hate mail. Quinn argued against excommunication, he told me, but he did not have the final say. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. 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. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. I hate him. I don't think I could have done that graciously. . (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. How did you find out about the impending disciplinary hearing? I accuse that committee, England declared, of undermining our Church.. When they did, Quinn, an only child, would go to his room, put on a classical record, and turn the volume up. One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. On Sunday with similar church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin, Anderson discussed her spiritual journey: What triggered the LDS Church's disciplinary action against you? As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. 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 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. I moved into recognizing the value and power of a lay priesthood in the body of Christ and Christian community. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. 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. . It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. How did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grow so fast I did. And he based at least one of his forgeries on the work of Michael Quinn. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. Peggy Fletcher Stack - Wikipedia 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.. was pressured to resign from Brigham Young University and subsequently excommunicated from the faith in 1993 as part of the famed "September Six . 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. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. But it was a forgery. The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. Quinn read fiction, too, including James Baldwins new book, Giovannis Room. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. 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. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, nearly fainted waiting for the Dalai Lama, fasted with Muslims during Ramadan and has reported on 50 consecutive semiannual LDS General Conferences. Hanks officially came back into the fold in 2012. She has been visited by all her ward and stake leaders since 1993, she said, but this was the first time anyone had ever proposed it. 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. This made some church leaders uneasy. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. Nor does it read like one. 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. What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. 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. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. Hed better start keeping it to himself. They were receptive. The main target of the statement, issued in August 1991, was the Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering started by Sunstone magazine 12 years before. 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. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. They don't feel safe enough to keep going it's such a terrible, terrible loss. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] Paul Toscanos sister-in-law was excommunicated for her writings about the Heavenly Mother, a controversial aspect of Mormon theology. Though he maintained a solemn belief in the Mormon gospel and in the sacrament partaken of by the faithful at Sunday services, he stopped attending church altogether. 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. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. 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. (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.) She's been covering religion for the paper since 1991 taking on a variety of topics, but mostly the LDS Church. 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. Dallin Oaks speaking at the General Conference in April 1989. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . 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. Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church . 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. Mystery! It was run by William O. Nelson, he said, once an assistant to Ezra Taft Benson who now reported to Boyd K. Packer. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. 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. 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. It went back to his college years. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. He asked Quinn to come see him in his office after work one day, Quinn says. But Robertson is especially pleased with the "Pillars" session. Peggy Fletcher was raised in New Jersey, daughter of physicist Robert Chipman Fletcher and Rosemary Bennett, one of five girls and three boys. 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. It had been a difficult year. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. 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. Threat of Excommunication Writer excommunicated during 'September Six' purge loses her bid to It was already, in the minds of some, a dangerous pursuit, and it had now become a deadly one, marred by fraud and riddled with errors. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. Former Mormon leader is building a new life _ as a woman Dubbed the September Six, the group were mostly left-leaning writers and scholars who had published articles or given talks about the role of women in Mormonism and the way the churchs leaders handle dissent. Taking the sacrament because it's an exclusion I feel every single week. 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. Two of the so-called "September Six" have found their way back into the LDS fold while Anderson though never rebaptized in some ways has never left. Before the first court, Whitesides and Anderson alerted friends and the press, and word spread quickly. Peggy Fletcher. 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 . I was removed from that situation. Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. Even after that, a few high-ranking Mormons continued to authorize such marriages. Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) | Sojourners Anderson wrote another piece that was again picked up by multiple papers, including the Los Angeles Times, which ran it under the headline Mormons Investigating Him, Critic Says.. 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.