Would love to hear your stories about her. [Husband] Paul, Christian [their son] and I sang in the choir that day. SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) After years of tension between Mormons and gay rights activists -- with political action and theological pronouncements on one . Peggy Fletcher Stack, David Noyce 3/23/2022. The timing of his career, which once appeared serendipitous, now seems almost cruel. That night, we went over to our neighbors' house and watched "A Man for All Seasons" and ate popcorn. All rights reserved. Though he maintained a solemn belief in the Mormon gospel and in the sacrament partaken of by the faithful at Sunday services, he stopped attending church altogether. Quinn showed that Brigham Young had a legitimate claim to the calling, though he was not the only one who did. He was excommunicated in 1911. "Nobody asked me to disavow my book or stop writing," Hanks said. In California, Quinn had picked up his mail at a P.O. He developed a fervent testimony not only that God exists but that God spoke to Joseph Smith face to face and that the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants are, like the Old and New Testaments, divinely inspired. 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. 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. Last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Speaking Tubes in the Household of Faith", "A Light Unto the World: Image Building Is Anathema to Christian Living", "From the Editors: Stretching Toward the Light", "From the Editors: A Failure to Communicate", "Church Historian: Evolution of a Calling", "Tales of a true believer: picking up faith along the way", "Books: Mormon Novels Entertain While Teaching Lessons", "Twenty Years Ago in Sunstone: Symbol and Promise", "Peggy Fletcher Stack: Happy 100th to my physicist father, who remains a truth seeker in science and faith", "Utahn who pioneered synthesized stereo sound will receive posthumous Grammy", "Despite Growth, Mormons Find New Hurdles", "Nobody Knows Religion Quite Like Peggy Fletcher Stack", "Religion Newswriters Association honors top religion reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2017 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Winners named in 2018 RNA Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence", "Journalism Awards - Winners and Articles", "The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Local Reporting: The Salt Lake Tribune Staff", "Religion Newswriters Association announces 2008 contest winners", "Religion Newswriters Association names winners of 2015 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "Religion News Association names winners of 2016 Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting", "SL Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack wins top religion reporting prize for fifth year", "Dreams, Dollars, and Dr. Pepper: Allen Roberts & Peggy Fletcher Years (19781980)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peggy_Fletcher_Stack&oldid=1124718303, "Nation's Founders: How Religious Were They? ``It was like `We're here to support you, Brother Gileadi,' '' he said of the atmosphere at the . . Ill come get him. It had been a difficult year. However, I do not see that eternal equality reflected in the contemporary church.". (Benson died in 94, Hunter in 95.) Maxine Hanks was held in the same stake center one week before, though she did not attend it. That was my decision. Ive had more than one therapist Ive talked to about this issue say, Dont you see that you were purposely setting yourself up for this fall? he told me. On Sept. 30 he called Hanks to ask what the court had decided. He then announced that I was not a member in good standing and could not use my temple recommend. Quinn had spent three years in the military in the late 60s, working in counterintelligence. He was in a wheelchair. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. I prayed every article I wrote into print, he said, continually asking God what he should do. I love the gospel. (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.) I felt they were not going to drive me away. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". Hanks had already held one church court in Quinns absence, in July, at which Quinn was disfellowshipped. 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 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. 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. I accuse that committee, England declared, of undermining our Church.. The four-day symposium, which begins Wednesday evening, also will include dozens of sessions about Mormonism and politics, about how members grapple with contemporary issues such as gay rights and feminism, building online LDS communities, Mormon Latino views of the church's immigration stance and how the Utah-based faith has developed its "brand" in the past several decades. The main target of the statement, issued in August 1991, was the Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering started by Sunstone magazine 12 years before. And he continued to correspond with Paul Hanks, who had written to express his displeasure at seeing his words quoted in the newspaper. Quinn is no longer actively seeking an academic job. The bombings and subsequent murder trial cast a pall over the practice of Mormon history. Peggy Fletcher Stack. It's a way for me to participate and contribute, almost like having a calling. It was not the last time he helped to excommunicate people, though. 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. At Yale, while serving as one of two counselors to the local bishop, he found unanswered letters in the wards files from people who wished to leave the church. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. (These soon-to-be former Mormons were not required to attend.) 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 . I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. 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. A candlelight vigil was held outside the Salt Lake City meetinghouse where it took place. They can't ex someone with that king of lineage. Nor does it read like one. The most senior apostle, Howard W. Hunter, also suffered from serious health problems. disciplined Anderson and five other Mormon intellectuals, church disciplinary actions threatening Mormon feminist Kate Kelly and blogger John Dehlin. When interviewing Quinn in 76, Packer said, I have a hard time with historians, because they idolize the truth. They divorced soon after. 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. How have the members of your ward treated you? See Photos. 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. Then she was accused of apostasy for editing an anthology, Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, which included a discussion of the all-male LDS priesthood and women's relationship to it. Her sincere belief in Jesus and determination to follow him no matter the adversity faced within or without the church should be commended, and this good and faithful servant should be rewarded, he wrote. sltrib.com. Quinn went to Californiahe had another fellowship at the Huntington Librarystaying this time with his mother. 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. Anderson was photographed at her Salt Lake City home with the work of her late husband, Paul L. Anderson, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. They were eventually published, without Quinns permission, by two prominent anti-Mormon activists, Jerald and Sandra Tanner. . And he based at least one of his forgeries on the work of Michael Quinn. 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. 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. He froze. LDS author disfellowshipped - Rick Alan Ross That's like solving obesity by turning MacDonald's into a gym. 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. . I feel like I am going by proxy for others who feel too damaged, too hurt and afraid to go. . September Six - Wikipedia The Salt Lake Tribune . (He took the surname from actor Anthony Quinn, whom he knew growing up in the Los Angeles barrio.) Fulton has called Quinn a nothing person.. 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. When he went into his office, the bishop, a man named Tom Andersen, said hed read this article in the L.A. Times, Quinn told me. These three shocks to Quinns testimonyabout the Book of Mormon, polygamy, and LDS theologyspurred a pursuit to unearth and understand those parts of his religions past that complicated the simpler story of the faith he had learned as a child. This was almost certainly wrong: Romney has plenty of LDS critics, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 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. Arrington). Once in a while such a case will hit the press. 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. Former Mormon leader is building a new life _ as a woman When they left, they said, "Have a nice day," to which I replied, "You have just assured that I will not.". He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. Peggy Fletcher Fletcher (Peggy Bennett Fletcher) See Photos. Nowadays, anyone can Google Mormon polygamy and learn more than theyd ever need to know about that practice, about its abandonment, the subsequent fallout, and so on. [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. 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. 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. July 26, 2012 12:03 pm . He visited these homes with his missionary companion and asked the boys if they still wanted to be Mormons. A missionary who doesn't want to preach false doctrine [5][6], Fletcher initially attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, for a year,[1] then transferred to the University of Utah, where she earned a BA in English literature. They had the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the church, they said, adding that, because Mormon leaders are constrained by confidentiality rules, the media have relied on information supplied by those disciplined or by their sympathizers. Similar councils occurred more sporadically over the next few years. By Peggy Fletcher Stack. 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. All rights reserved. If he doesnt, I have his phone number and I know where he lives. By then, Quinn had more or less moved on. Following the wave of media attention that greeted the September excommunications, the First Presidency defended what had taken place. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. Mormon author Grant H. Palmer has been summoned to an LDS Church disciplinary hearing on Sunday, facing possible excommunication for apostasy. 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. It sent him down a rabbit hole. The church declined to comment on the decision. Peggy Fletcher Stack - WikiMili, The Best Wikipedia Reader 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. 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 . 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 . His hiring was vetoed by the ASU administration, and many observers believe the administration caved to pressure from Ira Fulton, a Mormon donor who between 2003 and 2006 gave at least $155 million to the school. 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. 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 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. 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. 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.. It was a long time coming: Quinn had known he was gay since he was 12 years old. Packer approved Quinns hiring, but he may have come to regret it five years later. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. Peggy Fletcher Profiles | Facebook They never gave me one reason. That came out in early 1993. She was also the only one whose disciplinary council was overseen by her bishop, rather than her stake president. c. 2014 Salt Lake Tribune(RNS) The Mormon Church insists that excommunication threats targeting activists Kate Kelly and John Dehlin were generated by their respective LDS leaders in Virginia and northern Utah.Others see the timing as evidence that the two disciplinary hearings are being coordinated from the faith's Salt Lake City headquarters.But this much is certain: If Mormon higher-ups . Mike Quinn in his Rancho Cucamonga home in California this summer. What's it like going to church for two decades as an excommunicated member? Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. 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. It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. 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. He also criticized Ezra Taft Benson, then a senior apostle, who had made comments similar to Packers. He stinks.. My strong hunch is that she is a cultural Mormon who no longer believes, pays tithing or observes the WoW, and that she's loosey-goosey with her attendance. 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.. KRE/AMB END STACK It had since become the premier event for the so-called scholars and intellectuals of Mormonism to gather and exchange ideas. Peggy Fletcher. The president in 2012, when Hanks was readmitted, was Thomas S. Monson. (There is no conclusive evidence it took place, Quinn writes, but he does not dismiss the idea of one outright.) ", "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. 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. 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. It struck him as an old missionarys trick. Peggy Fletcher Stack. [5] They moved to Utah in 1991 when she was hired to be the religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune, where much of her reporting has focused on the LDS Church. She is in the right family. In the late 60s, he was called to preside over the churchs missionary efforts in New England, and moved with his family to Cambridge, Mass. 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. 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. Dallin Oaks speaking at the General Conference in April 1989. 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. He later got married in the temple, while I sat outside with friends. What to him and others that is so threatening is that this [Ordain Women movement] is coming from a very faithful, devout perspective. He acknowledged to me that, of course, it is possible to find outlets for service outside of Mormonism. Excommunication Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) 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. Hanks became less diplomatic. Believers in Denver Snuffer's Remnant movement gather in a Sandy, Utah, home for a fellowship meeting on Aug. 13, 2017, to sing songs and partake of the sacrament. While Packers precise involvement remains a matter of dispute, what little is known hints at his interference. Her testimony was that of a believer, Madrigal later told her. 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 institutional churchs position toward its intellectual community has shifted slowly and subtly but in real ways in the past 30 years; it is possible that there is a worry that allowing for her rebaptism would unearth battles the present First Presidency would like to let lie buried and spur a public relitigation of the issue., Secondly, the controversies surrounding Anderson had a great deal to do with feminism in the church and with ecclesiastical dissent, he said. Hundreds of other members joined him at gatherings and in small groups, and thus was born the "remnant movement ," which today touts 1000s of adherents. Whitesides says that Connie Chungs people asked her to take a hidden camera into her court. 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. High-Ranking Mormon Official, is Excommunicated - Coercion Code He subsequently has . What's happening is so wrong. The handbook doesn't say you can't speak in class, just over the pulpit. Quinn wrote back more harshly this time, listing all the things Hanks had done that troubled him. (KUTV) Peggy Fletcher Stack is the religion writer for the The Salt Lake Tribune.It's the best beat on the paper, she said.Stack fell into the job when she was hired in 1991.I have no degree in . The all-male priesthood leaders in his Willow Creek Sandy LDS stake could have excommunicated the 64-year-old author, but chose instead a . "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ. (Quinn is known professionally as D. Michael Quinn; the first name on his birth certificate is Dennis.) "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. My guess is she has to be to keep the doors open so people willing to talk to her. He was housesitting. There have always been dissidents in the Mormon ranksthe religion itself is one particularly dramatic dissent from the rest of Christian traditionbut a new community of Mormon intellectuals had coalesced in the 1960s and 70s. Mormon higher-ups hold keys to excommunication process against two activists. PDF Peggy fletcher stack excommunicated - World Tile 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.. It will be published next year. was pressured to resign from Brigham Young University and subsequently excommunicated from the faith in 1993 as part of the famed "September Six . By Peggy Fletcher Stack January 16, 2015 SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) John Dehlin, known to support same-sex marriage and the Ordain Women movement, said he expects "either disfellowshipment (i.e . or. There are three areas where members of the church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away, declared Boyd K. Packer, one of the churchs Twelve Apostles, in May 1993. He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. 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. The stake president shook our hands and was cordial. A diligent historian, meanwhile, will come to see that the truth of the matter is complicated. For the faithful, the simplest narrative regarding LDS polygamy is that God wanted Mormons to practice it between 1843when He revealed the doctrine of plural marriage to Joseph Smithand 1890, when He informed one of Smiths successors, Wilford Woodruff, of a change in course. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. She studied "traditional, sacramental Christianity and priesthood," Hanks said this week. He had become a father figure of sorts, even officiating at Quinns marriage ceremony. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. No way. It is also worth noting that the church president in 1993 was an ailing Ezra Taft Benson. Some church leaders continued to marry multiple wives, which is why there was a Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot congressional hearings. We had been home about 20 minutes when two high counselors came to our house and delivered a letter, inviting me to a disciplinary hearing two weeks from that day. Years ago, Don Bradley, a longtime scholar of Mormon history, asked to have his name removed from LDS membership rolls when participation became uncomfortable. He rejected the idea that his writings and his comments to reporters about Mormon history warranted disciplinary action, and he had come to a kind of peace about what he was sure awaited him. "Given who I was, there was no place to go but out," Hanks said in 2003, on the 10th anniversary of the excommunications. The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. 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 second thing that happens is members learn to be afraid of leaders, and leaders learn to be afraid of members. Quinns parents were divorced when he was 4, and he was raised largely by his mothers parents, who frequently fought. There is a peace that comes with that kind of clarity. There would be quite a number of people in the Mormon community who would look unfavorably on that. Later that year, Quinn was recommended for a one-year appointment at Arizona State. 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. 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. BYU and Utah State both wanted to hire him. Hanks rejoined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. Hofmann eventually became, in the words of one expert, the most skilled forger this country has ever seen. For LDS leaders nervous about church history, he was a nightmare personified: a lying, murderous man hell-bent on embarrassing the religion while glorifying and enriching himself. The meaning of EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership. 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.