peggy fletcher stack excommunicated

``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . I heard she's not Mormon at all. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. [4] During her time there, she has met and interviewed the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Gordon B. Hinckley, among others. 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. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for . From an early age, he felt within himself the presence of God, this burning of the spirit, as he says. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017 . [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. Robert Kirby does this also, but much more indirectly. "She might be a model for others who have been missing their Mormon community.". What's it like going to church for two decades as an excommunicated member? It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. Her explorations gave Hanks a new level of understanding and "testimony" of Mormonism. There are other matters that I need to talk with you about that are not related to your historical writings. 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. That last comment became the caption for a Newsweek photo three months later, when the magazines religion reporter, Kenneth L. Woodward, wrote a 1,000-word story about Quinns talk and the controversy it prompted. Maybe she wants to be, though. When Hanks showed up on Quinns doorstep in Salt Lake City that February, he brought a letter citing two of Quinns articles and a statement Quinn made to a reporter in 1991 as evidence that he was an apostate. This other Quinn was not home when the call came, and a baby-sitter answered the phone. The bearded dad, a father of 11 who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2015 for apostasy, suggests they sing hymns . Hanks became conciliatory, reading On Being a Mormon Historian, and writing to say hed gotten from it deeper insight into your devotion and your dedication to history and the Church. He asked again to meet when Quinn came back to Utah. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. There was no process for voluntary withdrawal from the Mormon Church in the 1960s, so each of these kids had to be excommunicatedtechnically, for apostasy. 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. 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 . The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. Like Quinn, hed first become interested in Mormon history when he learned that polygamy had gone on for years after its public abandonmenthe knew about this because his mothers parents were among the secret polygamists. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. Would love to hear your stories about her. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . I moved into recognizing the value and power of a lay priesthood in the body of Christ and Christian community. I was removed from that situation. [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. Many religions have strictures that establish who is in and who is out, but the Mormon church draws a brighter line than most. 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. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. 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. Since then, only one Avraham Gileadi, an Old Testament scholar who has spent his life researching and . The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. In it, Harris, who paid for the first printing of the Book of Mormon, tells a story of that books origins strikingly different from Smiths later, official account. He was in a wheelchair. At least, that's how Hall sees it. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. The former LDS stake president, who oversaw a group of congregations in Tooele for eight years and worked as an architect on her faith's most sacred spaces, faced, in her mind, an . ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. Late last year, a friend approached LDS officials to say that Hanks was ready to return to the fold. The kindness of my ward members has been really important. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. Snuffer was excommunicated. The book he was finishing, which would be published in 1994, was called The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. He moved back to Utah and began receiving mail at his actual address. The bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. At first, his timing appeared serendipitous: In 1972, while he was completing a masters in history at the University of Utah, an academic named Leonard Arrington was appointed church historian. He then expressed his gratitude to the church for providing, throughout his life, a vehicle for service. 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. "It will be a chance for a larger audience to hear this story," she said, and to hear how people can wrestle with their faith and then live it out. I know how to avoid people I didnt want to be in contact with, he says. He subsequently has . 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 was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. 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 . 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. Peggy Fletcher. [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. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. Ill come get him. He stinks.. But he could no longer go to the temple. Mystery! Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 Nov. 2022 To that end, the power that Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger bring is their personal stories of defiance and excommunication. In 1981, Quinn was asked by the colleges chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, a national honor society for history students, to respond to The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect. He did not pull his punches. One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. She was also the only one whose disciplinary council was overseen by her bishop, rather than her stake president. Log In. . Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church . sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. That came out in early 1993. 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.. People named Peggy Fletcher. 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 . The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . Hanks became less diplomatic. All rights reserved. Peggy Fletcher-Stack: Hi Dave. What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. Salt Lake City Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the LDS Church for being a woman. West did not formally revoke the recommend, he just put it in his drawer. 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. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. During the hiring process, a college dean offered to protect him, Quinn says, from those peoplethe LDS leadersup in Salt Lake., Before he could be hired, though, he had to visit LDS headquarters at 47 East South Temple in downtown Salt Lake and sit for an interview with one of those peoplespecifically, a general authority, one of the 100 or so men who run the church. Despite his productivity, though, hes never broken back into academia. That's a good question. The meaning of EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. 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. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. I hate him. When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. I just feel such heartache that the church I love is doing this to people who are sincere and trying to find ways of being Mormon and express their love of the gospel. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. 9:30AM EDT 8/29/2017 Peggy Fletcher Stack/RNS. [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. If there is unfinished business, its the First Presidencys, not mine.. 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. The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack, a . He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. "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. I have been taught a vision of a truly cooperative future where men and women are complete equals. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. The most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. This is maybe where John and I are very different. My own name remains on the rolls of the church, and I plan to leave it there, though I stopped believing in the Mormon gospel 15 years ago. . It struck him as an old missionarys trick. While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. 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. Peggy Fletcher. deductible, 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. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. 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. Going to the temple, but I feel that it's more important to have the temple in me than for me to be in the temple. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. The prophet at the time was Ezra Taft Benson, who, at age 94, was mostly incapacitated. In the past, many Mormon officials had a sense, he said, that the church must protect its members from "wolves among them.". "Given who I was, there was no place to go but out," Hanks said in 2003, on the 10th anniversary of the excommunications. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. [5] She met Mike Stack when he volunteered as a photographer for Sunstone in 1984, and they married in October 1985. 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.. The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million. June 17, 2014 8:59 pm . 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. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. I couldn't help but wonder if I, too, would be excommunicated if my concerns were made public. From that point on, she explored various Christian teachings and practices, assisted clergy with religious services and served as volunteer chaplain at Holy Cross Chapel for 13 years. 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. 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.. [Husband] Paul, Christian [their son] and I sang in the choir that day. Within the past few years, Bradley had a change of heart and was rebaptized. 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. I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. This puzzled me because I had a lot to say, but the message was absolutely clear. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . LDS officials disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals in and around the fall of 1993. 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. 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. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. ", 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. . Woodwards piece, headlined Apostles vs. Historians, called Quinns talk a stirring defense of intellectual integrity that had put Benson and Packer on the defensive. It was illustrated with a large photograph of Quinn up top, and a considerably smaller one of Packer. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. Look at Steve Benson, I suspect that there was no way they were going to ex him so he exed himself. Grant, an LDS Church president, a granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah, Wallace F. Bennett, and a granddaughter of American physicist Harvey Fletcher. 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. 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. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? 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. He had, after all, believed for many years that he would someday be a leader of the church, knowing that if this were true he would have to forever suppress an essential part of himself. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. The demographics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include statistical data relating to the church's population and particular groups within it.. 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. 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. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. At least, that's how Hall sees it. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. 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. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. We had stake [regional] conference in September. 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 didn't have to look at the councilmen and wonder what they said about me. A history full of benignly angelic church leaders apparently advocated by Elders Benson and Packer would, he said, border on idolatry.. Nor does it read like one. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. Feb 17. I could listen to the spirit there. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. Running almost 100 pages and including nearly 400 footnotes, the essay was the fruit of decades of thought and research. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. 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. 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. On Friday , during a popular evening session of next week's Sunstone Symposium, an annual meeting for Mormon intellectuals and observers, Hanks will detail her 20-year spiritual sojourn as a feminist theologian and chaplain, which brought her full circle back into Mormonism. But it also betrayed tensions within the church that may never entirely go away. Paul Toscanos sister-in-law was excommunicated for her writings about the Heavenly Mother, a controversial aspect of Mormon theology. Some did not know that they were. McLean invited her, she said, to describe her faith in a letter, which includes her conviction that God cherishes everyone. 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. Denver Snuffer . Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. 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. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. This is all lies! he told the friend who showed it to him. The Mormon church is organized into congregations called wards; a group of these is called a stake. He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. It's a way for me to participate and contribute, almost like having a calling. And the Tribune is changing with it. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. He was excommunicated in 1911. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. The most threatening thing about Ordain Women to people in the church is that it is coming from faithful, devout, courageous, wonderful women and that's more threatening than anything could be. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate.

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