peggy fletcher stack excommunicated

His wife Margaret, an English professor and feminist who attracted attention from church leaders before her husband did, was excommunicated in 2000. While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. [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. The accused is called in, another prayer is offered, and the court proceeds. 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. He visited these homes with his missionary companion and asked the boys if they still wanted to be Mormons. Quinn was shocked that it took that long. This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. . 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. by Peggy Fletcher Stack (Salt Lake Tribune) 06-23-2015. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. Though a lifelong Latter-day Saint, Hanks had not been attending a Mormon ward for several years. Being treated like an ordinary person is a gift a ward can give. 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. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) 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. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) And the Tribune is changing with it. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating, the worldwide effort to bring salvation to all of Gods children, Some things that are true are not very useful, LDS Authority and New Plural Marriages, 18901904, this growing conflict between leaders and intellectuals, Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood Since 1843, Quinns paper about the Baseball Baptism Program, the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the church, critical pieces he had written about Mitt Romney, Hanks described her path back to Mormonism, the administration caved to pressure from Ira Fulton. 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.. 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. 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. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. I didn't have any doubts. She has been visited by all her ward and stake leaders since 1993, she said, but this was the first time anyone had ever proposed it. 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. See Photos. Whats more, all Mormons are supposed to have a calling in the church, which makes for a wonderfully participatory religion but also discourages casual membership. The fact that we keep going to church is a blessing. 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.. In the early 90s, when he was living in New Orleans, Quinn, nearing his 50th birthday, tried his hand at fiction, going back to the literature he once studied as an undergraduate. The Mormon church holds two different kinds of disciplinary councils: a more elaborate process that is often reserved for those who hold the Melchizedek priesthoodgenerally speaking, all devout adult menand a simpler process mostly used for those who dontmeaning women and men who have not advanced far in the church. "But when I got to the point of priestly ordination, I pulled back. All rights reserved. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . By Peggy Fletcher Stack By David Noyce For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Mormon church has excommunicated one of its top leaders. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. Sometimes Stack refers to Salt Lake City . (Quinn attempted to reach this friend through a third party before my piece was finished, but declined to give me his name before speaking to him.) 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. In May 1993, apostle Boyd K. Packer said the church's three greatest threats came from feminists, gays and intellectuals. 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. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That's a good question. If her reentry had been approved, Anderson would have been the third of the six the other five are Avraham Gileadi, Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, D. Michael Quinn, Paul Toscano and Maxine Hanks to be welcomed back into full fellowship with the Utah-based faith. 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. 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. 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. 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. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. 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. After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." Hanks officially came back into the fold in 2012. [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. "She might be a model for others who have been missing their Mormon community.". Peggy Fletcher Stack. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . In California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. Quinn got hate mail. 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. Feb 17. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . 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.. In May, my stake president called me in about it. 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. [4] During her time there, she has met and interviewed the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Gordon B. Hinckley, among others. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. Soon after, he happened to attend, with some friends, a meeting of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a splinter sect that believes Joseph Smiths son, not Brigham Young, was Smiths rightful successor as prophet. 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. In 2004, after a series of fellowships and visiting appointments, he was the only finalist for a tenured position at the University of Utah. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. A former BYU professor named David Wright was excommunicated in 1994 after publishing a paper arguing that the Book of Mormon was not an ancient text. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Saturday, February 22, 1997. [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. West did not formally revoke the recommend, he just put it in his drawer. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. Dated Oct. 23, 1830, the letter was addressed to an early Mormon convert named W.W. Phelps and signed Martin Harris. I hate him. Quinn studied English literature in collegehe attended BYUbut during his three-year stint in the military he decided to become a historian, and make what had become a consuming pastime into his profession. He was excommunicated in 1911. This was hard on Paul [who works at Brigham Young University]. He put down in words his sincere testimony in the Mormon gospel and in Ezra Taft Bensons status as a true prophet of God. And he was the most strident of the group when it came to denouncing internal critics of Mormon leaders and teachings.