Devout Mormons consider these callings divinely inspired. Men only become gay in prison, or sometimes in the Navy. Even after that, a few high-ranking Mormons continued to authorize such marriages. During Sunday school, a man approached him and said, The bishop would like to talk to you. Quinn dreaded what was coming. 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.. McMurrin Differed in Gentler Times. They were receptive. But that was not how he experienced 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. The intellectual climate had improved under Oaks, people said. [5][8] During her time with the magazine, she helped turn around its finances, saving it from closing. 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. I used to think Steve Benson was a bad person. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. It's a way for me to participate and contribute, almost like having a calling. West refused to do this, according to Quinn. At the conference, he spoke about the history of same-sex relationships in the church and the shifting attitudes toward them on the part of Mormon leaders. He left it up to local leaders to come up with a reason. 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. 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. 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. She was struck by how frail he appeared, and found herself feeling nothing but compassion and love for a man who had once seemed like an enemy. I have been doing that for 18 years. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989.). The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. 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 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. 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. 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 don't think I could have done that graciously. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . Taylor fled to Canada during the congressional hearings for Reed Smoot, a fellowbut monogamousapostle, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. Half of these men speak for the accused, and half for the church. Though the letter from the current First Presidency made up of church President Russell M. Nelson and counselors Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring offered no explanation for the rejection, Bowman speculates that there may be at least two possible answers history and dissent. I love the gospel. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. How is she still a practicing member after all this exposure to the truth? I moved into recognizing the value and power of a lay priesthood in the body of Christ and Christian community. . We had stake [regional] conference in September. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. Quinn had been avoiding this confrontation for nearly five years. 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. 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. By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 3, 2013. I felt they were not going to drive me away. The high council also heard from Andersons son, Christian, who offered his personal assessment. Report a missed paper by [email protected] calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or [email protected]. 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. (Rick Bowmer/AP) This article is more than 8 years old. There are important aspects of Mormon life, such as temple ceremonies, that are open only to the truly faithful. 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. At the time, he was grieving the death of his son, who had gone missing and was found weeks later hanging from a tree by an extension cord. One of the central questions in the aftermath of Septembers events was just how involved Packer himself had been in them. 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. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) It had been a difficult year. 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. What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. By Peggy Fletcher Stack June 23, 2015 Many Mormon feminists experienced Kate Kelly's excommunication as a harsh slap felt around the world. I didn't have any doubts. 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. Quinn read fiction, too, including James Baldwins new book, Giovannis Room. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated in 2014 for her views on gender inequality in the Mormon Church . By Peggy Fletcher Stack After an exhausting six-hour disciplinary hearing Sunday, Mormon leaders temporarily suspended Grant H. Palmer's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 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. He was in a wheelchair. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. 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. deductible, Report a missed paper by [email protected] calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or [email protected]. After organizing a massive campaign to pass Proposition 8 and make gay marriage illegal in California, for instance, the church suffered a massive backlash and has since appeared more tolerant toward gay rights activism. But the cause didn't really matter because it was pretty clear that Elder [Boyd K.] Packer [of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles] was trying to send a message by targeting certain people, such as historians and feminists. 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. One of the articles came from an anthology called Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, edited by Maxine Hanks, a distant relative of Pauland his uncle Marionand, soon, one of the September Six herself. 1897 - First Presidency member George Q. Cannon used the media attention on the 1895 conviction and two-year imprisonment of famed Irish poet Oscar Wilde as an opportunity to pu 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. [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. Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, and one of the founders of Sunstone. At the pinnacle of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidencythe churchs prophet and his two counselorsand the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He revised the story occasionally over the next decade, submitting it unsuccessfully to the Paris Review and the Atlantic. ", Hanks' rebaptism suggests a difference in LDS leadership from then to now, said Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone's editor from 2001 to 2008. Hanks told him he had been excommunicated, and said that the court lasted six hours. She said hello, but he did not recognize her. While the simpler approach is handled by a bishop and his two counselors, the more elaborate version is run by a stake president, and it involves not only his two counselors but the stakes high council, a group of 12 men. The same month that his essay about post-Manifesto polygamy was published, in April 1985, Quinn and his wife separated. Michael Quinns final disciplinary council was held on Sept. 26, 1993, in the Salt Lake Stake Center, the headquarters for the oldest stake in Utah, founded by Brigham Young in 1847. I might have lost my soul, but at least I still have my mind. Hanks became less diplomatic. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . Two of the so-called "September Six" have found their way back into the LDS fold while Anderson though never rebaptized in some ways has never left. Most people don't know I've been excommunicated. By then an assistant district attorney, Lambert later helped prosecute the case against Hofmann. As she entered the building at 47 East South Temple, she happened to pass Boyd K. Packer on his way out. Dave: We remind our listeners about a new way to support Mormon Land. I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. How have the members of your ward treated you? The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. The general authority assigned to interview Quinn in the spring of 1976 was Boyd K. Packer. See Photos. But by the fall of 92 he had to return to Salt Lake City to finish research on the book, and he had grown tired of hiding from church authorities. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. It took several hoursa vigil was held outside for the first few, with candles and hymns and hot chocolate. (He also, as it happens, officiated at the wedding of my parents.) (Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for The Salt Lake Tribune.) 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. Quinns religious status wouldofficially, at leastbe decided by his own stake president, not by the higher-ups in Salt Lake City. 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. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. After reading Peggy Fletcher Stack's article (linked in April's post), I realized that many of us share Lavina's ongoing concerns, including the exclusion of women from institutional authority and the side-stepping of the Heavenly Mother doctrine. 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. I did the very best I knew how to do, the thing that I felt was the right thing to do., Donate to the newsroom now. 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. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) No way. 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. It really hurt my feelings. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. A box of old photos belonging to Michael Quinn at his home. If he doesnt, I have his phone number and I know where he lives. The church declined to comment on the decision. 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.. She studied "traditional, sacramental Christianity and priesthood," Hanks said this week. Groundbreaking Emma Smith biographer, a 'giant' in Mormon scholarship, dies at 82. ", 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. I was removed from that situation. (There is no conclusive evidence it took place, Quinn writes, but he does not dismiss the idea of one outright.) 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. 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. This year he completed the third and final volume in his trilogy on the Mormon hierarchy, which examines the churchs business and financial activities from 1830 to 2010. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. 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. I had never been treated as a liar before. Just prior to reading Family Kingdom hed seen an anti-Mormon pamphlet called The Book of Mormon Examined, which highlighted hundreds of changes Joseph Smith made to the Mormon scripture in its first few printings.
Carnes Park Whitehall Al Address,
Bishop Family Murders Pictures,
Articles P