But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. 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. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. Every morning he worked there was Christmas morning, Quinn says. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Wilkinson was reprimanded, though, and in 1970 he was replaced by Dallin H. Oaks, a law professor at the University of Chicago who had clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren at the U.S. Supreme Court. Quinn argued against excommunication, he told me, but he did not have the final say. Some did not know that they were. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. See Photos. The church declined to comment on the decision. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. 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. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. Stack is an advisor on religion to the Public Broadcasting Service,[2] and has written two books. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. 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. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". They were eventually published, without Quinns permission, by two prominent anti-Mormon activists, Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" Again, I'm reminded of a scene in "Schindler's List" where the sltrib.com. We embedded him as thoroughly in the church as we ourselves had been. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. [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. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. Part of what I feel is a calling to be there. Hebrew scholar Avraham Gileadi has been rebaptized into the LDS Church after being excommunicated for apostasy along with five other writers and scholars in September 1993. Where a skeptic sees convenience, a believer may see Gods hand. 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. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. 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. (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.) Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. 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. Just go to . Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. At least, that's how Hall sees it. Why didn't you go to the hearing to defend yourself? He froze. 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. 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. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. Daryl Peveto/Luceo Images for Slate. 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. Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. 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. Within the past few years, Bradley had a change of heart and was rebaptized. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. In an April 1968 talk about military service, he described the restless, unchallenged young people who are repudiating their citizenship responsibilities by avoiding and protesting the draft. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. The main target of the statement, issued in August 1991, was the Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering started by Sunstone magazine 12 years before. The modern Mormon church has become a fairly top-down organization, but most responsibility for attending to its members still resides in local lay leaders. He never wrote another work of fiction. Religion Two decades after she was "exed," Utah writer still attends her LDS ward. June 19, 2014 ; 1 of 9; All rights reserved. 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 symposium's "Pillars of My Faith" session will showcase a similar path, said Mary Ellen Robertson, Sunstone's interim executive director. . Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. In May 1993, apostle Boyd K. Packer said the church's three greatest threats came from feminists, gays and intellectuals. [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. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . 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 found me outside and was kind and helpful. Salt Lake City Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the LDS Church for being a woman. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. When something like [my excommunication] blows up, the first casualty is trust and that never comes back. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. Today, its Nelson, with a new counselor, Oaks, instead of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. 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. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. 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. 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. But multiple faculty members argued that, in the words of one professor, Mike was not the right person to head up any kind of Mormon history or Mormonstudies program given the fact hes very publicly excommunicated. He has occasionally attended other churches. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. Excommunication opened the door to a larger cosmos, inside and outside myself.". 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.