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. 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. Hi, Peggy. I had never been treated as a liar before. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. 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. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack (@religiongal) / Twitter ", 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. He does not have friends in Rancho Cucamonga. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. As a Mormon, he also knew that same-sex attraction was considered unfortunate at bestsomething to be struggled with, and, if possible, overcome. LDS author disfellowshipped - Rick Alan Ross After high school, Christian went to Stanford, and we thought, "This may be where we hear bad news." [3] She is a great-granddaughter of Heber J. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. by Peggy Fletcher Stack. The accused is called in, another prayer is offered, and the court proceeds. 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. If there is unfinished business, its the First Presidencys, not mine.. Excommunication Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster The nature of religion reporting in Utah is changing. Person 2 Person: Peggy Fletcher Stack | KUTV In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Author at Religion News Service - Page 2 of 6 Peggy Fletcher was raised in New Jersey, daughter of physicist Robert Chipman Fletcher and Rosemary Bennett, one of five girls and three boys. "Mormon facing excommunication makes his living off his podcasts," by Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune, February 8, 2015 "On Attempts to Smear (i.e., Being 'Fair Gamed'") by John Dehlin ; Faith Transition episodes on Mormon Stories . 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. 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. Mystery! What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. He was in a wheelchair. 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. 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. That's a good question. 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 . Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks said. In an April 1968 talk about military service, he described the restless, unchallenged young people who are repudiating their citizenship responsibilities by avoiding and protesting the draft. The regional council forwarded her request to church headquarters, with the recommendation that she be approved for rebaptism. Mormons from around the world have gathered to listen to church leaders during the two-day conference. Paul Toscanos sister-in-law was excommunicated for her writings about the Heavenly Mother, a controversial aspect of Mormon theology. Nor does it read like one. A Response to Peggy Fletcher Stack about OSF Finances Supposedly Nelson, like Benson, was a supporter of the John Birch Society, a radically right-wing, conspiracy-mongering, anti-Communist group. She was told to pass along this message: Im tired of hearing him criticize the church. [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. 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. Following the wave of media attention that greeted the September excommunications, the First Presidency defended what had taken place. 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. Photo by George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Peggy Fletcher Stack Senior religion reporter. Peggy Fletcher Stack writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. 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. . 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 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. After 20 years, this excommunicated Mormon still attends her LDS ward I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. Ordain Women's Kate Kelly loses last appeal; husband to resign from Mormon church . Quinns status in the church remained unchanged. Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the so-called September Six, has had her request for rebaptism into the LDS Church rejected by the faith's governing First Presidency after being approved by her local lay leaders. This massive housecleaning may be one of the church's largest since the 1850s, when thousands were excommunicated for everything from poor hygiene . Quinn went over local church rolls and found addresses of kids who didnt come to Sunday services. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? Maybe, I suggested, he was trying to bring his full self out into the open. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. 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. The other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. ", 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. In order to have her blessings fully restored, she had to meet with a general authority at church headquarters. There are other matters that I need to talk with you about that are not related to your historical writings. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. All rights reserved. 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. Just go to . He acknowledged to me that, of course, it is possible to find outlets for service outside of Mormonism. To this day, I would have made exactly the same decision. 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 . Neither Paul nor I nor Christian had to field a single negative comment the next week, when we went to church in our ward. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. 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. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. (They draw numbers to pick sides.) He took a fellowship at the Huntington Library, near his hometown of Pasadena, Calif., and began indexing his enormous collection of notes on old Mormon documents, in preparation for his next book. But he had a caring bishop that first year and decided on his own to serve a mission. The former LDS stake president, who oversaw a group of Mormon congregations in Tooele for eight years and worked as an architect on her faith's most sacred spaces, faced, in her mind, an impossible choice: Either return to living as a man or resign her . [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. 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. (In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the LDS church for not allowing him to do so. The church declined to comment on the decision. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu . Bradley and Hanks are friends who trod a lot of common ground, Robertson said. 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. Like Robert Kirby, it would be a shit storm to ex 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. I love the gospel. Excommunicated Mormon to tell how she came back to the faith 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. They cited a 19th-century revelation to Joseph Smith, in which he spoke of the saints gathering up a knowledge of all the facts, and sufferings and abuses put upon them, and said that perhaps a committee can be appointed to find out these things, and to take statements and affidavits; and also to gather up the libelous publications that are afloat. The First Presidency did not mention that when Smith received this revelation he was in prison in Missouri, where a Mormon extermination order had been decreed by the governor not long before. In many respects, Andersons affirmations mirror those of other members. 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 The stake president said I was "exed" for apostasy but I didn't really fit the handbook definition. Peggy Fletcher Stack has been reporting on faith and religion since 1991. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. After a prayer, the stake president explains to them the details of the case. I did. They didn't say anything. 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. 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. 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 Hanks letter that night and wrote a detailed response. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. Grant, a President of the LDS Church and is the granddaughter of United States Senator from Utah Wallace F. Bennett. Quinns religious status wouldofficially, at leastbe decided by his own stake president, not by the higher-ups in Salt Lake City. While preparing for the retired Brigham Young University artists memorial service, Bishop Mahonri Madrigal read Pauls written testimony, or statements of faith, that the ward had compiled in 2000. . Two years later, he was called as an apostle. Quinn was already on the alert for such wrinkles in the churchs history. It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. 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. Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. 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. ", "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. SCHOLAR REBAPTIZED INTO LDS CHURCH - Deseret News One of Ordain Womens founders, Kate Kelly, was excommunicated in June 2014. 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. Stack is an advisor on religion to the Public Broadcasting Service,[2] and has written two books. A forum for ex-mormons and others who have been affected by mormonism to get support and share news, commentary, and comedy about the Mormon church. In the quarter-century since her ouster, Anderson consistently has attended weekly services at her Latter-day Saint congregation, the Whittier Ward. 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. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mormons devote one sacrament meeting each month to personal testimonies, and Quinn was sure this would be his last opportunity to offer his in church. He stinks.. If you've picked up a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune in the last 26 years, you know Peggy Fletcher Stack's name. She currently serves on the . West said hed been told by a higher authority to take further action to remedy the situation, Quinn says. He turned 65 two years later, making him eligible for Social Security and Medicare. During Quinns New Orleans years, the First Presidency put out a statement discouraging Mormons from participating in academic conferences and other independent forums devoted to the discussion of their faith. By: Peggy Fletcher Stack. Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. I wouldn't give it up, but promised him I wouldn't use it. No way. After 18 months, he moved to New Orleans, where it was less expensive to live. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. Peggy Fletcher Stack: How I report on Utah's changing faith landscape The cabin has no phone access, so I had months [after her initial conversation with the stake president] to think about it. Knowing her personally (not closely, but we're acquainted) I get the feeling that she is much more culturally LDS than actually LDS. 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. Part of what I feel is a calling to be there. >Two years after an excommunicated Kate Kelly sought a giant leap, Mormon feminists keep making small steps toward equity . West did not formally revoke the recommend, he just put it in his drawer. [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. 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 is in the right family. 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.