Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex her. This is not entirely uncommon in Mormon culture, but Quinn took it sincerely to heart. If Peggy wanted to do some groundbreaking . In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. Denver Snuffer . [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. All rights reserved. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. 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. 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. 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. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. Packer, the second-most senior among the 12, was the substitute president of the Quorum of the Twelve whenever Hunter was sidelined for medical reasons. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. This is maybe where John and I are very different. . The seventh son of Taylors third wife, Samuel sympathetically portrays his notorious father, who continued to marry multiple wives well after the LDS church officially renounced polygamy in 1890. His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. 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. I assumed there was a way to work it out. He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. 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. The latter, a smaller school, offered less money, but BYU had its own drawbacks: It was and is a conservative place, politically as well as religiously. Quinn attended that ward in Westwood every week while he was in California. I admire her. I hate him. Former Mormon leader is building a new life _ as a woman 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. The Salt Lake Tribune/June 16, 2014. 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) "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 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. Mormonism was as much an identity issue for them as it is for me. 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. 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. Now I see that he just didn't appreciate the dishonesty associated with his grandpa. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. The book, published a decade before, was written by Taylors son Samuel, best known today, perhaps, for writing the short story that became The Absent-Minded Professor. The noisy nonsense on-screen felt to Quinn like a rough equivalent of what the church was doing to him. 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. The church declined to comment on the decision. The accused is called in, another prayer is offered, and the court proceeds. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. That came out in early 1993. Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church . He was housesitting. I know how to avoid people I didnt want to be in contact with, he says. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. 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. [4] During her time there, she has met and interviewed the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Gordon B. Hinckley, among others. In May, my stake president called me in about it. The book won an award from the American Historical Association, but it brought Quinn more grief in Utah. Hi, Peggy. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022. Disciplinary councils still happen, though they appear to be less frequent, particularly when it comes to apostasy. In what dissidents have described as a purge, church leaders took severe disciplinary action in September against six Mormon scholars and feminists, the New York Times reported on Oct. 2, 1993. (He was delivering the third bombto whom it is not entirely clearwhen it blew up accidentally.) She is in the right family. I did. D. Michael Quinn and Mormon excommunication: The complicated life of a Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. 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. . He hopes that eventually hell manage to sell the condo and will get enough money for it that he could move back to New Orleans and live there for the last couple decades, God willing, of his life. Quinn was an ordinance worker, meaning he went to the temple regularly and helped others perform those rites. My searching was complete. 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. 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. According the her Wikipedia page: She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. 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. 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 . "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. They divorced soon after. It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. . Hanks rejoined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February. He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. But it was a forgery. Many religions have strictures that establish who is in and who is out, but the Mormon church draws a brighter line than most. [5] She met Mike Stack when he volunteered as a photographer for Sunstone in 1984, and they married in October 1985. In 1981, he gave an address to church educators called The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect, which was organized around four cautions. The second of them is this: There is a temptation for the writer or teacher of church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith-promoting or not. 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.. 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. 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. Later he was told that despite his request that no one speak for him, a friend had attended and done just that, playing recordings of Quinns presentations at past Sunstone Symposia and reading excerpts from his writings. Before the first court, Whitesides and Anderson alerted friends and the press, and word spread quickly. Jay Christian, left, and thousands of other people protest against the passage of Californias Proposition 8 outside the world headquarters of Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah. ", Kelly goes on KUER's Radio West "A lot of people are asking me why I came forward [with the news of my disciplinary hearing]. June 17, 2014 8:59 pm . 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. I love the church. LDS officials disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals in and around the fall of 1993. 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. Some things that are true are not very useful. Its not clear whether Packer read Quinns work before interviewing him, but if he did, it probably would have struck him as less than useful. 1) I am very proud that, unlike the LDS Church, I have been transparent regarding OSF finances and my own compensation. Feb 17. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. It was held by the stake high council, and so my bishop and ward members took the position that that was their doing. 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. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. 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. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. One Sunday in February of 1993, Michael Quinn was home sick with a fever when his doorbell rang. She was told to pass along this message: Im tired of hearing him criticize the church. The book he was finishing, which would be published in 1994, was called The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. ", "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. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. They are called to them by the men at the very top of the hierarchy. 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. This has been intentional. They didn't say anything. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. 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. Peggy Fletcher. An interview from January 1983: Sterling M. McMurrin : mormon Two decades ago, Maxine Hanks could not have imagined where her spiritual journey would take her, but she knew this much: She would not likely be walking into the waters of Mormon baptism. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. It was run by William O. Nelson, he said, once an assistant to Ezra Taft Benson who now reported to Boyd K. Packer. Ill come get him. He had also just published an article titled The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844, which detailed the confusion about who should succeed Joseph Smith after his assassination. 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. Independent publicationsmost notably Dialogue (founded in 1966) and Sunstone (1974)provided forums for scholarship and reflection about Mormon history and theology. The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. >Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity . All rights reserved. I love Jesus. . Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . 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. 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. Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. 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. Threat of Excommunication 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? I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. I assured him I did not. West did not formally revoke the recommend, he just put it in his drawer. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] Kelly was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in June. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. Stack is an advisor on religion to the Public Broadcasting Service,[2] and has written two books. See Photos. How did you find out about the impending disciplinary hearing? (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) 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. Years ago, Don Bradley, a longtime scholar of Mormon history, asked to have his name removed from LDS membership rolls when participation became uncomfortable. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. See Photos. The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). In 1988 he resigned his position at Brigham Young University, the private college owned and operated by the Mormon church, having decided that his interest in the problem areas of the religions past jeopardized not only his position on the history faculty but his membership in the church itself. 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.. 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. 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. Knowing that our Heavenly Parents are both male and female teaches me that our potential as women is limitless. Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. "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 felt they were not going to drive me away. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . JDK-8141210 : Very slow loading of JavaScript file with recent JDK Not long before Hofmann sold that forged document, he approached Quinn in the church archives, and asked about the succession crisis and the article. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. My stake president said in an email, if I [didn't] come forward and tell people that I am not a member in good standing, he would. 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. The most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. What do you think about these potential actions against Kate Kelly and John Dehlin? Today, its Nelson, with a new counselor, Oaks, instead of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. 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. Peggy Fletcher. Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. 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 imagine she walks a careful, thin line to avoid being exed. 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.. That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. The [women's] Relief Society president found a way to involve me as a "permanent substitute" for Relief Society pianist. She declined. Some did not know that they were. Following his excommunication, he finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power and turned his attention to another scholarly book with deep personal meaning. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. 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. . No telephone call came., On Aug. 27, McLean delivered the First Presidency denial. 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. If those top leaders did not know where he lived, then they could not assign him to a particular stake, and his church membership could not be threatened. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. People named Peggy Fletcher. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. Following the wave of media attention that greeted the September excommunications, the First Presidency defended what had taken place. Re: Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" Excommunication is a complicated and multi-layered process for sexual minorities in the church who choose to marry in a way that the church considers a "same sex" marriage. I wrote an article for "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought" that summarized 133 cases of LDS ecclesiastical abuse, and my pleas to do better to care for the Mormon faithful. The Mormon church is organized into congregations called wards; a group of these is called a stake. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. Gileadi, Toscano, Anderson, and Hanks were all excommunicated. KRE/AMB END STACK After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. Nobody Knows Religion Quite Like Peggy Fletcher Stack He has occasionally attended other churches. Quinn was shocked that it took that long. Woodruff himself said in his journal that he was acting for the temporal salvation of the church, and the 1890 Manifestoas his official statement is knownwas not immediately taken to be a divine revelation. Hanks told him he had been excommunicated, and said that the court lasted six hours. [4], She won the 2004 Cornell Award for 'Excellence in Religion ReportingMid-sized Newspapers' from the Religion Newswriters Association in 2004, an award she also received in 2012, 2017, and 2018. An Excommunication, And The Future Of The Church Of Jesus Christ - WBUR I don't think I could have done that graciously. Mike Quinn in his Rancho Cucamonga home in California this summer. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. It was really important to Paul and me that Christian grow up in a religious community, and the church was the one we chose. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". He wept as he read it aloud to others. The stake president, a man named Paul Hanks, tried to step into the apartment as he said hello, Quinn recalls. He found me outside and was kind and helpful. Quinns status in the church remained unchanged.
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