peggy fletcher stack excommunicated

I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. But he could no longer go to the temple. 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. [5] She met Mike Stack when he volunteered as a photographer for Sunstone in 1984, and they married in October 1985. How did you find out about the impending disciplinary hearing? Quinns mother, on the other hand, was a sixth-generation Mormon: She had an ancestor who converted when the Mormons were still in Nauvoo, Ill., and who is mentioned in Joseph Smiths journals. 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. McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land, it says. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Today my story was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune in Peggy Fletcher Stack's thoughtful article about excommunication. 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 . Snuffer was excommunicated. Which has also, it seems, made Michael Quinns singular focus on the unspoken parts of the Mormon past less relevant to younger historians, who operate with more freedom and less pressureand who draw far more interest than their predecessors from the wider world, which has suddenly become fascinated by Mormonism. He revised the story occasionally over the next decade, submitting it unsuccessfully to the Paris Review and the Atlantic. At its worst, such talk is sometimes called speaking evil of the Lords anointed.. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Hanks officially came back into the fold in 2012. 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. 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. Looking back, it was a real blessing. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. When interviewing Quinn in 76, Packer said, I have a hard time with historians, because they idolize the truth. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). He moved back to Utah and began receiving mail at his actual address. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry.. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. 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. The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. Peggy fletcher stack excommunicated Denver Snufferpersonalbordenver Carlos Snuffer Jr.Religion (Mormon Independent) Restoration Andsupra-Denominational Christian [1] Nationality Americanhome Townmountain House, Idahochildrensisx Daughters and Two Children [2] Alma Materdaniel Webster Junior Collegemcmurry UniversityBrigham Young University (JD, 1980) 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. 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 . 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. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. 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. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. I heard she's not Mormon at all. Many religions have strictures that establish who is in and who is out, but the Mormon church draws a brighter line than most. It was run by William O. Nelson, he said, once an assistant to Ezra Taft Benson who now reported to Boyd K. Packer. Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. So she met with local and high Mormon leaders and, after several months, they set a baptismal date. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. Something similar, if more protracted, took place after September 1993. She was told to pass along this message: Im tired of hearing him criticize the church. 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.. 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. 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. 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. 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. After reading Peggy Fletcher Stack's article (linked in April's post), I realized that many of us share Lavina's ongoing concerns, including the exclusion of women from institutional authority and the side-stepping of the Heavenly Mother doctrine. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. They were eventually published, without Quinns permission, by two prominent anti-Mormon activists, Jerald and Sandra Tanner. People named Peggy Fletcher. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. Hi, Peggy. He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. 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. In 1975 Stack helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies, and steered it for its first eleven years. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. The day before, a similar bomb had killed Steve Christensen, a friend and Mormon history enthusiast who had arranged for Quinn to speak at lunch and dinner engagements, paying him with generous gift cards to his fathers clothing store. Peggy Fletcher-Stack. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. Peggy Fletcher. Find your friends on Facebook. 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. In both forms of LDS courts, the accused is typically allowed to bring in character witnesses. The stake president, a man named Paul Hanks, tried to step into the apartment as he said hello, Quinn recalls. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. 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. (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.) When the men from the stake presidency came to his door in February, Quinn was living three blocks from the Salt Lake Temple and the worldwide headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, we believe that Latter-day Saints who are committed to the mission of their Church and the well-being of their fellow members will strive to be sensitive to those matters that are more appropriate for private conferring and correction than for public debate. There are times, they added, when public discussion of sacred or personal matters is inappropriate., The Statement on Symposia was another tear in the already fraying relationship between church leaders and scholars. We had stake [regional] conference in September. By then, Quinn had more or less moved on. The church declined to comment on the decision. I could imagine the First Presidency thinking that this is not an episode worth revisiting, Bowman wrote in an email. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? Where else would I be but in the church? Quinn read Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. We embedded him as thoroughly in the church as we ourselves had been. Quinn was shocked that it took that long. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. I accuse that committee, England declared, of undermining our Church.. 2012. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. 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. Press J to jump to the feed. I used to think Steve Benson was a bad person. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. Before the first court, Whitesides and Anderson alerted friends and the press, and word spread quickly. I don't think I could have done that graciously. Hanks rejoined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. The book opened Quinns teenage eyes to dissent within the highest echelons of LDS leadership, and to the apostles debateand apparent dissemblingabout plural marriage after 1890. Hed better start keeping it to himself. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. [3][4][5] She was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), with her father traveling and speaking as a member of the stake high council. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. At least, that's how Hall sees it. Log In. In 1999, she joined the Interfaith Roundtable for the 2002 Winter Olympics, where she enjoyed the association of representatives from various faiths and led the annual Interfaith Week. Then I went away to my cabin for the summer and he called all the temples in Utah, saying he was canceling my recommend. . 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. 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 . . They divorced soon after. Article type . Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. In May 1993, apostle Boyd K. Packer said the church's three greatest threats came from feminists, gays and intellectuals. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". Peggy Fletcher was raised in New Jersey, daughter of physicist Robert Chipman Fletcher and Rosemary Bennett, one of five girls and three boys. They never gave me one reason. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. He wept as he read it aloud to others. 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. On the Sunday it was held, Quinn went to a movie theater in downtown Salt Lake and bought a ticket for the first screening he could find, to take his mind off the disciplinary council. After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." Ultimately, the events of September 1993 may have helped broaden those borderlands, encouraging other members of the faith to openly question Mormon orthodoxy without entirely leaving the religion behind. 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. 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. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) 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. Today, its Nelson, with a new counselor, Oaks, instead of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. 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. Taking the sacrament because it's an exclusion I feel every single week. 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. I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. by Peggy Fletcher Stack. It went back to his college years. The timing of his career, which once appeared serendipitous, now seems almost cruel. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. 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. And he based at least one of his forgeries on the work of Michael Quinn. The noisy nonsense on-screen felt to Quinn like a rough equivalent of what the church was doing to him. 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. Vern Anderson, the AP reporter, wrote an 800-word story about the essay in January, just before Hanks showed up at Quinns apartment. Lavina Fielding Anderson, one of the famed September Six writers and scholars disciplined by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1993, got a big no last week to her request for rebaptism from the men who matter most: the faiths governing First Presidency. 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. She said hello, but he did not recognize her. He was troubled by the openness with which materials were being made available to certain individuals other than those authorized, according to Lucile C. Tates admiring 1995 biography, Boyd K. Packer: Watchman on the Tower. 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. 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 . 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. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. If he doesnt, I have his phone number and I know where he lives. 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. She is in the right family. When something like [my excommunication] blows up, the first casualty is trust and that never comes back. My searching was complete. [5], In 1975, following discussions with Scott Kenney and others, she helped found Sunstone, an independent magazine of Mormon studies. 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? Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. 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. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . Within the past few years, Bradley had a change of heart and was rebaptized. All rights reserved. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. Quinn refused. 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. 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. 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 . Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . Stack is an advisor on religion to the Public Broadcasting Service,[2] and has written two books. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax In hindsight, the purge of September 1993 looks like the last big push for a kind of control that LDS leaders will probably never have again. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. 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. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . The bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. The fact that we keep going to church is a blessing. I had received a blessing from a former stake president, assuring me that when the time was right, it would come very easily, so I could be at peace. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. 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. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. 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. 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. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. I assured him I did not. He has occasionally attended other churches. More painfully, as a high councilor in a Utah stake several years later, Quinn was part of courts prompted by personal sinsuch as engaging in homosexual acts. Down in Provo, Avraham Gileadi met more quietly with his local leaders. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. Excommunication has played a significant role throughout the churchs history. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. 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 himself did not even stay in town. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. My parents never blamed me, but they were heartbroken. A member of that sect told Quinn about a since renounced bit of theology once preached by Brigham Young, referred to as the Adam-God doctrine. Youngs notion, roughly speaking, was that God and Adam are one and the same. 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. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In 1997, the acclaimed historian Richard Bushman, who spent much of his career writing on non-LDS topics, began studying his religion again in earnest, and convened an annual seminar that helped attract young scholars who might have pursued other interests. The president in 2012, when Hanks was readmitted, was Thomas S. Monson. There he told a story about the time Packer embarrassed him in front of fellow church leaders as apparent payback for a slight from six years before. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) What I heard was that I would be excommunicated and that I shouldn't go. 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. Lavina Fielding Anderson decided not to appear at her court, either, which took place at another Salt Lake meetinghouse a few days afterward. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. 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. 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. Quinn got hate mail. I have been doing that for 18 years. Boyd Packer, left, and Dallin Oaks, right, Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wait for the start of the first session of the 181st Semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. 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. 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 Bible and the Book of Mormon, which depict flawed, human prophets, are, Quinn said, an absolute refutation of the kind of history Packer advocated. He said it was apostasy because I believed that general authorities had done something wrong. It sent him down a rabbit hole. I did. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. "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.

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