McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. I could imagine the First Presidency thinking that this is not an episode worth revisiting, Bowman wrote in an email. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. 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.. He decided that only 16 of the changes were significant. It had been a difficult year. 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. 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. [15], Stack wrote a children's book about religion with artist Kathleen B. Petersen, entitled A World of Faith, published in 1998.[4][16]. The temple president tried to make it as good an experience as he could for my parents, Paul, Christian and Marina [his bride] and me. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. 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 . Quinn wrote back more harshly this time, listing all the things Hanks had done that troubled him. But Robertson is especially pleased with the "Pillars" session. After Quinn finished his lunch at BYU, he decided not to go home. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. Elder Packer, he told Quinn, will never get over this.. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. It was the papers second article in two weeks about a series of church courts held across 13 days in September and reported in media outlets across the country. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. My dad was a bishop twice. He said it was apostasy because I believed that general authorities had done something wrong. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. This massive housecleaning may be one of the church's largest since the 1850s, when thousands were excommunicated for everything from poor hygiene . Salt Lake City Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the LDS Church for being a woman. 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. This new knowledge sent Quinn to the Journal of Discourses, a 26-volume collection of Mormon sermons. With no regular income to speak of, Quinn moved into his mothers condo in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. (He took the surname from actor Anthony Quinn, whom he knew growing up in the Los Angeles barrio.) Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. He never wrote another work of fiction. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. He contends that a former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had openly romantic feelings for men, and highlights a once hushed-up gay affair from the 1940s between a prominent church leader and a 21-year-old Mormon serving in the Navy. I found this tl/dr written by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Salt Lake Tribune:. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks told The Salt Lake Tribune that year. Quinns status in the church remained unchanged. A candlelight vigil was held outside the Salt Lake City meetinghouse where it took place. This is maybe where John and I are very different. I had my answers.". But he could no longer go to the temple. 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. (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 . . 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. Quinn was already on the alert for such wrinkles in the churchs history. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. 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. 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. It sent him down a rabbit hole. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. What's it like going to church for two decades as an excommunicated member? 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. After Paul Toscano was excommunicated, Steve Benson, grandson of the then Mormon prophet, met privately with the apostles Dallin H. Oaks and Neal A. Maxwell, and asked them aboutamong many other thingsthe rumor that Packer had something to do with it. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . And the Tribune is changing with it. This is not entirely uncommon in Mormon culture, but Quinn took it sincerely to heart. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. Religion Two decades after she was "exed," Utah writer still attends her LDS ward. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. . . "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. She was told to pass along this message: Im tired of hearing him criticize the church. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Just go to . The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. 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 . [Husband] Paul, Christian [their son] and I sang in the choir that day. 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. No way. 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. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. I love Jesus. We were sitting in the front room of a house owned by a gay couple he knows in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Salt Lake City. Box 15 miles from where he was staying, and in New Orleans he had it delivered to a receiving center a little ways from his apartment. I was not surprised or angry about the outcome, Anderson said Wednesday, and she has no plans to try to open that door again. What I heard was that I would be excommunicated and that I shouldn't go. By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . "The issues in Mormon doctrine, history and practice highlighted by those facing church discipline are much larger than any one individual," the statement reads. Crucially, much of that project is onlinemore than anything, the Internet has revolutionized the field. 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. I hate him. 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. 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. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) In a detailed confession, Hofmann said that he had secretly stopped believing in Mormonism as a teenager and had hatched a plan to embarrass the church by creating fake documents that exposed uncomfortable facts about early Mormon history. (Benson died in 94, Hunter in 95.) [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. After the Newsweek article ran, Quinn got a phone call from Marion D. Hanks. All rights reserved. He himself did not even stay in town. . The church's definition of "membership" includes all persons who were ever baptized, or whose parents were members while the person was under the age of eight (called "members . Years ago, Don Bradley, a longtime scholar of Mormon history, asked to have his name removed from LDS membership rolls when participation became uncomfortable. The second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. He was in a wheelchair. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . When I make comments in Sunday school and Relief Society, they are accepted as anyone else's. LDS officials disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals in and around the fall of 1993. 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. 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. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. And it was not popular with those of the brethren that Quinn had already angered with his talk on Mormon history four years before. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. However, I do not see that eternal equality reflected in the contemporary church.". But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. 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. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. As the historian Ross Peterson said at the time, Comparing Sunstone and Dialogue folks to people who were shooting Mormons in 1839 Missouri is unfair. Peterson, after speaking about Mormon temple rites in the press, had been shown his own file during a conversation with local church leaders. On March 23, 2018, Andersons husband, Paul, died of heart failure. Gileadi, a Hebrew scholar who got into trouble for unorthodox writings about the biblical Isaiah, was rebaptized within several years. 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. This friend, Quinn says, told him that the men on the council disagreed about whether Quinn was an apostate, and that President Hanks finally declared that Boyd K. Packer was pressing him to take action, and they needed to do something. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. Peggy Fletcher-Stack. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. ", Kelly writes in London's Guardian newspaper "For me it is because of my faith and not in spite of it that I have a desire to stand up for myself and my sisters. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. I imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. He asked Quinn to come see him in his office after work one day, Quinn says. They never gave me one reason. . 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. Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church . That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. 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. 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. 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 felt they were not going to drive me away. He also mentioned reading Quinns long Dialogue article about the politics of Ezra Taft Benson. 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. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. That has been a blessing truly fulfilled. . But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. 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. She is in the right family. 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. Ive had more than one therapist Ive talked to about this issue say, Dont you see that you were purposely setting yourself up for this fall? he told me. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. Peggy Fletcher. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. 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. If you've picked up a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune in the last 26 years, you know Peggy Fletcher Stack's name. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. 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 book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. A second bomb that first day killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of one of Christensens former business partners. She embodies, more than anyone else I know, the ideal of a broken heart and contrite spirit, which has influenced me so strongly that I, the last time I checked, was one of only two of the 21 children of the September Six who is still an active member.. 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. Gileadi, Toscano, Anderson, and Hanks were all excommunicated. If he doesnt, I have his phone number and I know where he lives. At its worst, such talk is sometimes called speaking evil of the Lords anointed.. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. 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. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". Bad marriages had women running to and away from . 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. If there is unfinished business, its the First Presidencys, not mine.. She was upset that he was not attending church, and so he drove 45 minutes to a singles ward, a Mormon congregation specifically for unmarried adults, near UCLA. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. In her paper, she mentioned an internal espionage system that creates and maintains secret files on members of the church. A BYU literature professor named Eugene England rose to speak as soon as Anderson finished. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. It went back to his college years. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. It will be published next year. These are very sensitive and highly confidential and this is why I have not mentioned them before in writing. Hanks alluded to these matters in subsequent letters, but never explicitly said that he had Quinns sexuality in mind. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. Robert Kirby does this also, but much more indirectly. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) We embedded him as thoroughly in the church as we ourselves had been. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Saturday, February 22, 1997. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. Born in 1924 in Brigham City, Utah, the 10th of 11 children, Packer worked for years as a teacher and administrator in the Church Educational System. 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. He acknowledged to me that, of course, it is possible to find outlets for service outside of Mormonism. Quinn was an ordinance worker, meaning he went to the temple regularly and helped others perform those rites. I assumed there was a way to work it out.
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