peggy fletcher stack excommunicated
The main target of the statement, issued in August 1991, was the Sunstone Symposium, an annual gathering started by Sunstone magazine 12 years before. 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. Wearing a bathrobe, he answered after several rings and found three men in suits and ties on his doorstep. There he told a story about the time Packer embarrassed him in front of fellow church leaders as apparent payback for a slight from six years before. "All they asked me about was my relationship to Jesus Christ.". 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. In the field of Mormon history the changes are particularly pronounced. I am confident that my desire to be worthy of the temple is acceptable of the Lord. Sunstone The spiritual journey of Maxine Hanks, one of the "September Six,'" comes full circle. Fawn Brodie was related to David O. McKay. I had a spiritual prompting that summer staying at my cabin that I wasn't to go. Once the kids were interested, the missionaries were supposed to contact their parents, with the aim of converting whole families. 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. 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. For details, go to http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/symposium. [9] She started the "Faith" column after a discussion with Tribune editor Jay Shelledy. The bishops next comment was, Whats wrong with those people up in Salt Lake? He was thrilled to have Quinn in his ward. The churchs critics find the timing convenient: By 1890, the U.S. government had threatened to seize LDS property if polygamy wasnt renounced. 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. ", This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 04:21. This has been intentional. Hymns were sung. It's Judgment Day for Far Right: LDS Church Purges Survivalists 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.. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. He wrote a short story about two male missionaries in Louisiana who become attracted to each other and are stalked by a religious psychopath. She's been covering religion for the paper since 1991 taking on a variety of topics, but mostly the LDS Church. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? 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. It will be published next year. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. Once in a while such a case will hit the press. It did not happen overnight, but many LDS leaders seemed to regret the furor and the hurt that surrounded those excommunications. [5] She then attended the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California for two years, where she studied religious history. And the Tribune is changing with it. 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 . 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. Kate Kelly Shreds Peggy Fletcher Stack for Using Her as "Clickbait" Again, I'm reminded of a scene in "Schindler's List" where the So she met with local and high Mormon leaders and, after several months, they set a baptismal date. 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. A view of the Salt Lake Temple outside Olympic Medals Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Quarum of 12 Apostles wanted to ex her, but the Quarum of Public Relations blocked their move. If he doesnt, I have his phone number and I know where he lives. 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 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. She said she was really angry at the church, not at me. My parents never blamed me, but they were heartbroken. Robert Kirby does this also, but much more indirectly. The timing of his career, which once appeared serendipitous, now seems almost cruel. It is always harder on the loved one who has to stand by and see someone they love being hurt. That higher-ranking leader, James Paramore, had further instructed West to say that the decision was Wests own, and had not come from above. I was not surprised or angry about the outcome, Anderson said Wednesday, and she has no plans to try to open that door again. A page of the so-called Salamander Letter, forged by Mark Hofmann. Peggy Fletcher Profiles | Facebook I love Jesus. I assured him I did not. 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. Right next to Pauls was Lavinas description of her beliefs in Jesus Christ, Mormon founder Joseph Smith, the scriptural text he produced, The Book of Mormon, and the role of prophets. Some, perhaps, simply regretted the bad press. When Benson asked why no one had stopped him, Oaks allegedly replied, You cant stage manage a grizzly bear. Benson resigned his Mormon membership shortly afterward and became a vocal opponent of the church his grandfather ostensibly led. Ironically, this testimony only ever deserted him on his Mormon mission. While LDS leaders can be defensive about media attention, sustained criticism from the outside world seems to have an effect. He never wrote another work of fiction. "Mormonism was limiting to me, so I needed to test the limits to see who I and the church really might be. She declined. Hired in 1991 to cover Utah's various faiths, particularly Mormonism, Peggy has talked forgiveness with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, nearly fainted waiting for the Dalai Lama, fasted with Muslims during Ramadan and has reported on 50 consecutive semiannual LDS General Conferences. False Prophet Gaining Steam Among a 'Remnant' Church The temple president tried to make it as good an experience as he could for my parents, Paul, Christian and Marina [his bride] and me. 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. Timeline of teachings on homosexuality in the Church of Jesus Christ of TV and newspaper reporters came. She was the editor of Hastings Center Report from 1986 until 1991, when she was hired to start the "Faith" column in the Salt Lake Tribune. The biggest thing that got me was the excommunication of bill reel segment of the Mormon stories podcast. A second bomb that first day killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of one of Christensens former business partners. He left quietly and went to call the LDS Church Office Building to ask about this committee. Hed been told it was an unusually accepting congregation. It went back to his college years. Earlier this year, Maxine Hanks became the first of the September Six to fully return to the Mormon Church since the conservative outlier Avraham Gileadi was quietly rebaptized almost two decades ago. Bad marriages had women running to and away from . We appreciate the search for knowledge and the discussion of gospel subjects, the First Presidency said. Ultimately, the events of September 1993 may have helped broaden those borderlands, encouraging other members of the faith to openly question Mormon orthodoxy without entirely leaving the religion behind. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. . Snuffer was excommunicated. Since I'm there every Sunday, I don't fit their model of an excommunicated member. Even in the novels, he noticed, the gay characters came to terrible ends. (There is no conclusive evidence it took place, Quinn writes, but he does not dismiss the idea of one outright.) [14] Along with five other reporters, she won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 in the Local Reporting category for a series of stories about sexual assault victims at BYU. After 20 years, this excommunicated Mormon still attends her LDS ward 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. Peggy Fletcher Stack / Salt Lake Tribune: High-ranking Mormon official, who twice spoke in General Conference, is excommunicated Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones. I said I didn't think members believe general authorities don't make mistakes. But some simply baptized the boysa few without explaining what the baptisms were for. A candlelight vigil was held outside the Salt Lake City meetinghouse where it took place. But he had a caring bishop that first year and decided on his own to serve a mission. He, the bishop, and the other counselor held the necessary courts, excommunicating those who wanted out. He makes fun of the church by making fun of himself and stodgy rank and file, as well as cultural absurdities. He was in a wheelchair. (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 . What I heard was that I would be excommunicated and that I shouldn't go. All rights reserved. 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. Whether Quinns fate had truly been sealed is hard to say. Not long before Hofmann sold that forged document, he approached Quinn in the church archives, and asked about the succession crisis and the article. D. Michael Quinn and Mormon excommunication: The complicated life of a Paul Toscano, a combative lawyer, showed up for his, at the Cottonwood Stake Center in the southern part of Salt Lake City. 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. In 1975, partly at Packers urging, Leonard Arringtons role at the church historians office was greatly diminished. The church has control of my membership; I decide whether I'm Mormon or not. Hi, Peggy. By Chris Jorgensen and Peggy Fletcher Stack The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is purging hundreds of Mormon dissidents who church officials say are preoccupied unduly with Armageddon. The same group of local church leaders who participated in Gileadi's excommunication were present at the baptism service. 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. They were receptive. 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. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Laurie Lee Hall was excommunicated from the Mormon church for being a woman. But 90 percent of the ward has changed since my court. SCHOLAR REBAPTIZED INTO LDS CHURCH - Deseret News 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 other five people who were by then being referred to as the September Six had already faced their courts. I had never been treated as a liar before. 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) 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. He has not been since. Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. He slept on her futon and had no Internet access or health insurance. How did you find out about the impending disciplinary hearing? Hanks became less diplomatic. Hanks was excommunicated in 1993, one of the "September Six," Mormon writers and scholars who were disciplined by their local LDS officials in the same month. 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. Quinn refused. Quinn was convinced, in any case, that his fate in any disciplinary council was predetermined, that Boyd K. Packer wanted him out of the church and Hanks was going to make it happen. Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. 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. He insisted that the September councils were local affairs, but church employees who reported to him had, it turned out, been keeping tabs on the six who were disciplined, and rumors swirled that Packer himself personally insisted that the courts take place. That was my decision. In 1989, Dallin H. Oaks, the onetime law professor and BYU president who was now an apostle, had given a talk called Alternate Voices at the churchs semiannual General Conference. ", 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. When his mother died in 2007, she left him the condo. Going to the temple, but I feel that it's more important to have the temple in me than for me to be in the temple. He was 32; he and his wife, Jan, were expecting their fourth child. When he came to understand this aspect of himself, and learned a name for it, he did what was already typical of him at that age: He went to the library. 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. In 1981, he produced a blessing allegedly given by Joseph Smith to his son Joseph Smith III, declaring him my successor in the Presidency of the High Priesthood. The document was partly inspired, it appears, by The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844, which refers to such a blessing. [5][7][8] From 1978 to 1986, she was the third editor of Sunstone. During the hiring process, a college dean offered to protect him, Quinn says, from those peoplethe LDS leadersup in Salt Lake., Before he could be hired, though, he had to visit LDS headquarters at 47 East South Temple in downtown Salt Lake and sit for an interview with one of those peoplespecifically, a general authority, one of the 100 or so men who run the church. He said it was apostasy because I believed that general authorities had done something wrong. He compared Packers treatment of Church leaders to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, which is anathema to Mormons. It was his death and funeral that prompted the couples current bishop to bring up the possibility of her rejoining the church. 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. 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. A missionary who doesn't want to preach false doctrine Former Mormon leader is building a new life _ as a woman Peggy Fletcher. Something similar, if more protracted, took place after September 1993. The truth is not uplifting. Thats according to Quinnmy request to speak with Packer, whose health has badly deteriorated in recent years, was declined. 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. We had stake [regional] conference in September. Quinn read fiction, too, including James Baldwins new book, Giovannis Room. 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. 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. I go over the temple ceremony and the covenants in my mind and remake them before the Lord often. He has continued to publish articles about Mormon history and to participate in the Sunstone Symposium. He stinks.. (Rick Bowmer/AP) This article is more than 8 years old. Bradley and Hanks are friends who trod a lot of common ground, Robertson said. He went to San Diego to give the keynote address for the annual conference held by Affirmation, a support group for gay and lesbian Mormons, and he stayed in California for several days afterward. He asked Quinn to come see him in his office after work one day, Quinn says. The movie was a live-action adaptation of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. 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. [Excommunicated Mormons are not supposed to take communion.] He has occasionally attended other churches. "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 . 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 . Looking back, it was a real blessing.