When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. [3] She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. All rights reserved. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. 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. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. 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. It really hurt my feelings. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. "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. The LDS church does not remove any name from the list unless the person is excommunicated, asks to be removed or is dead. Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. His father was never Mormon: The son of Mexican immigrants, he changed his namethough never legallyfrom Daniel Pea to Donald Quinn, apparently wanting to escape his heritage as well as his poverty. Many religions have strictures that establish who is in and who is out, but the Mormon church draws a brighter line than most. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. While serving it in England, he was tasked with cleaning up the results of the Baseball Baptism Program, in which missionaries used sports to attract young converts. 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. In the past, many Mormon officials had a sense, he said, that the church must protect its members from "wolves among them.". They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . Hofmann eventually became, in the words of one expert, the most skilled forger this country has ever seen. For LDS leaders nervous about church history, he was a nightmare personified: a lying, murderous man hell-bent on embarrassing the religion while glorifying and enriching himself. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. Peggy Fletcher Stack has been reporting on faith and religion since 1991. 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. He has not been since. Where else would I be but in the church? I cannot be anything but a Mormon. 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. She was also the only one whose disciplinary council was overseen by her bishop, rather than her stake president. I accuse that committee, England declared, of undermining our Church.. ", Hanks is a "genuinely spiritual person and quite insightful, who brings a type of spirituality with her that will resonate with lots of people," he said. 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.. And he was the most strident of the group when it came to denouncing internal critics of Mormon leaders and teachings. Until 23 years ago, one could not formally leave the church without being excommunicated. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. It struck him as an old missionarys trick. I love Jesus. [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. (He took the surname from actor Anthony Quinn, whom he knew growing up in the Los Angeles barrio.) They were receptive. This other Quinn was not home when the call came, and a baby-sitter answered the phone. It is also worth noting that the church president in 1993 was an ailing Ezra Taft Benson. 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. 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. [5], The Stacks traveled in Africa for a year,[5] then settled in New York City for five years,[1] where she worked as the editor of the Hastings Center Report while her husband attended film school. Quinn was an ordinance worker, meaning he went to the temple regularly and helped others perform those rites. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. Disciplinary councils still happen, though they appear to be less frequent, particularly when it comes to apostasy. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. He turned 65 two years later, making him eligible for Social Security and Medicare. They divorced soon after. I moved into recognizing the value and power of a lay priesthood in the body of Christ and Christian community. Fixed: Release in which this issue/RFE has been fixed.The release containing this fix may be available for download as an Early Access Release or a General Availability Release. After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Then she was accused of apostasy for editing an anthology, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, which included a discussion of the all-male LDS priesthood and women's relationship to it. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack | Sep. 5, 2019, 1:20 p.m. | Updated: 11:59 p.m. . was pressured to resign from Brigham Young University and subsequently excommunicated from the faith in 1993 as part of the famed "September Six . Salt Lake City Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the LDS Church for being a woman. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. Down in Provo, Avraham Gileadi met more quietly with his local leaders. Bradley and Hanks are friends who trod a lot of common ground, Robertson said. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. [5][6], Fletcher initially attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, for a year,[1] then transferred to the University of Utah, where she earned a BA in English literature. 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. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. The Mormon church, he said, drew him out of his largely monastic life and compelled him to help the men and women he saw every Sunday. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. That has been a blessing truly fulfilled. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. 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. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. It's a way for me to participate and contribute, almost like having a calling. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. 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 . [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] Peggy Fletcher. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". Hanks return predated the Ordain Women movement, which pushed for women to join the faiths priesthood, said Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Bowman, who heads the Mormon studies program at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. 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. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for . Many of the shifts in the church administration's position toward intellectuals recently has had to do with history and intellectual openness, while the issues driving Lavinas excommunication are still very much alive and unresolved today., It is possible, Bowman posits, there was fear that allowing for her rebaptism would send a signal on those issues that the First Presidency did not wish to send.. They were eventually published, without Quinns permission, by two prominent anti-Mormon activists, Jerald and Sandra Tanner. 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. While such a calling does not officially confer infallibility on the man who receives itand the general authorities are all malepublicly criticizing the men in these positions is strongly discouraged. That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. He decided that only 16 of the changes were significant. I used to think Steve Benson was a bad person. All rights reserved. Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. 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. Snuffer was excommunicated. sltrib.com. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks told The Salt Lake Tribune that year. 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. When Benson asked why no one had stopped him, Oaks allegedly replied, You cant stage manage a grizzly bear. Benson resigned his Mormon membership shortly afterward and became a vocal opponent of the church his grandfather ostensibly led. 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. 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. 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. Not long after that, the bishop met with Anderson and asked her ever so gently if she would like to discuss reinstatement. 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. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. P The Sunstone Symposium runs July 25-28 at the University of Utah's Olpin Student Union. This made some church leaders uneasy. From an early age, he felt within himself the presence of God, this burning of the spirit, as he says. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. ", "Guilt, pain, help and hope when Mormon missionaries come home early", "For a string of vivid reports revealing the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment given to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University, one of Utah's most powerful institutions. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. But Packer certainly said similar things before larger audiences. 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. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. This new knowledge sent Quinn to the Journal of Discourses, a 26-volume collection of Mormon sermons. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks said. He visited these homes with his missionary companion and asked the boys if they still wanted to be Mormons. 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. I know how to avoid people I didnt want to be in contact with, he says. 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. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. 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. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. In many respects, Andersons affirmations mirror those of other members. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. . These dangers, Packer said, were the relatively new feminist and gay-lesbian movements, and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals.. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. 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. 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. 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. At its worst, such talk is sometimes called speaking evil of the Lords anointed.. My searching was complete. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. She declined. 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 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. Quinn wrote back more harshly this time, listing all the things Hanks had done that troubled him. He stinks.. What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. 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. The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. On Oct. 16, 1985, Quinn was having a late lunch at a BYU food court when he heard a news report that Mark Hofmann had been blown up by a pipe bomb in Salt Lake City. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] I hate him. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. Hymns were sung. 2) I would very gladly swap my OSF compensation package with any member of the LDS First Presidency, Quorum of the 12 Apostles, or 1st Quorum of the Seventy. 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. When they did, Quinn, an only child, would go to his room, put on a classical record, and turn the volume up. The kindness of my ward members has been really important. But the Churchs case against Twede will never be known: After the Daily Beast story, the council was postponed, and a few weeks later, Twede resigned from the faith. 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.