September Six

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The September Six were six noted Mormon liberal intellectuals and feminists expelled from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS Church, or Mormons) in September 1993. The alliterative term "September Six" was coined by the The Salt Lake Tribune, and the term was frequently used in the media and subsequent discussion of the matter.

Church Measures against the September Six

Except for Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, all of the September Six were excommunicated; Whitesides was disfellowshipped. As of 2004, four of the September Six are not members of the LDS church; the exceptions are Avraham Gileadi, who was rebaptized, and Whitesides, who is still a disfellowshipped member.

While the LDS Church sometimes announces when a prominent member has been excommunicated, LDS leaders' policy is to refuse to publicly discuss details about the reasons for any excommunication, even if details of the proceedings are made public by that person. Such disciplinary proceedings are typically undertaken at the local levels, initiated by leaders at the ward or stake level, but some of the September Six have suggested their excommunications were orchestrated by higher-ranking LDS leaders.[citation needed]

The LDS church's point of view is missing, therefore, as to why each of the September Six were excommunicated. Based on many of their own comments, and other sources, the following describes what is known or believed about the six individuals' reasons for excommunication, and their current relationship to Mormonism.

Short Biographies

Lynne Kanavel Whitesides

Lynne Kanavel Whitesides is a feminist noted for speaking on the "Mother in Heaven." Whitesides was the first of the group to experience church discipline. She was disfellowshipped September 14, 1993. Though technically still a member, Whitesides claims that she "burst" out of the Church and her marriage in 1993, and now considers herself a practitioner of Native American philosophies.[1] In 2005, Whitesides was named in a US district court legal action as manager of the peyote-distributing Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church.[2]

Avraham Gileadi

Avraham Gileadi is a Hebrew scholar and literary analyst who is considered theologically conservative. He authored two books, one about Isaiah and one about the last days, which were published by LDS-owned Deseret Book. The second book, after rising to the top of the LDS market, was later pulled from the shelves through Elder Packer's intervention.[citation needed] Details of why he was excommunicated on September 15 are not available, although the church has never asked him to retract any of his writings.

Gileadi has been re-baptized and is an active member of the church. He has since written ground-breaking works on Isaiah, including The Literary Message of Isaiah (2002) and Isaiah Decoded: Ascending the Ladder to Heaven (2002), which were endorsed by Hugh Nibley and other LDS scholars and which are carried by all but church-owned Deseret Book.

Paul Toscano

Paul Toscano is a Salt Lake City attorney who co-authored with Margaret Merrill Toscano a controversial book, Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology[3] (1990), and, in 1992, co-founded The Mormon Aliance; he later wrote the book The Sanctity of Dissent[4] (1994) and its sequel The Sacrament of Doubt[5] (2007). He was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) on September 19, 1993; the reason for his excommunication as given by church leaders was his apostasy and false teaching; the actual reason was Toscano's insubordination in refusing to curb his sharp criticism of LDS Church leaders' growing preference for legalism, ecclesiastical tyranny, white-washed Mormon history, and authoritarianism that privilege the image of the corporate LDS Church above its commitment to the teachings and revelations of Joseph Smith, its founding Prophet, and to the gospel of Jesus Christ [See Toscano, Paul, "The Sanctity of Dissent" (2008,). in Dissent and the Failure of Leadership, ed. Stephen Banks. New Horizons in Leadership Studies, series ed. Joanne B. Ciulla. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar. pp. pp. 169-181. ISBN 978-1-84720 575-9. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)]

Toscano has stated that he lost his faith "rather like one might lose one's sight after an accident" and that he regrets his criticisms of the LDS church's authoritarianism, homophobia, misogyny, and elitism have been disregarded. [SeeToscano, Paul (1994,). The Sanctity of Dissent. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. pp. pp. 57-75. ISBN 1-56085-049-3. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)]

His wife Margaret see, http://www.margarettoscano.com] was excommunicated for her views in November 2000.[6] Articles by and further information about Paul Toscano may be found at his web site http://www.paultoscano.com and an interview series with each of the Toscanos may be found on YouTube.

Maxine Hanks

Maxine Hanks is a feminist theologian who compiled and edited the book Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism (1992). She was excommunicated September 19, ostensibly for this work (as was fellow contributor, D. Michael Quinn).[citation needed]

Hanks had been writing or researching on Mormon topics since 1975, including LDS history, theology, and women's issues. She served an LDS mission, taught at the LDS Missionary Training Center, and worked for BYU in the 1980s.[citation needed] Mormon studies continued as her area of scholarly work after the excommunication, with publication of two more books and many articles on Mormonism. Her work also expanded into Christian liturgy and religious studies, including study at Harvard Divinity School. Privately, she pursued Gnosticism, became clergy in 1999, and active in interfaith work.[7] She continues her work on women's studies in Mormonism and religion.

Lavina Fielding Anderson

Lavina Fielding Anderson is a feminist writer who edited the books Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective (1992), and Lucy's Book,[8] the definitive edition of the Lucy Mack narrative, a former editor for the Ensign and the current editor for the Journal of Mormon History since 1991. She was excommunicated September 23.

Anderson attends LDS church services as a non-member. She writes on Mormon issues, including editing the multi-volume Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance, an ongoing collection of interviews with Mormons who believe they were unfairly disciplined by the Church.[9]

D. Michael Quinn

D. Michael Quinn is a Mormon historian. Among other studies, he documented LDS Church-sanctioned polygamy from 1890 until 1904, after the 1890 Manifesto when the Church officially abandoned the practice.[10] He also authored the 1987 book, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View,[11] which argues that early Mormon leaders were greatly influenced by folk magic and superstitious beliefs including stone looking, charms, and divining rods. He was excommunicated September 26.

Quinn has since published several critical studies of Mormon Hierarchy, including his two-volume work that starts with his dissertation The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power[12] and a companion volume The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power,[13] a third volume is scheduled for a 2008 publication by Signature Books. He also authored the 1996 book Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example, which argues that homosexuality was not uncommon among early Mormons, and was not seen as a serious sin or transgression.

Despite his excommunication and critical writings, Quinn still considers himself to be a Latter-day Saint.[14]

Causes

As noted above, the LDS Church typically does not comment on excommunication or other disciplinary proceedings, so official LDS explanations are absent from discussions of the September Six. However, many scholars, researchers and others[15][16] from within and outside the LDS Church argue the September 1993 excommunications were a historic move by the LDS Church to remove high-profile dissenting scholars and feminists from its membership.

This event climaxed long-standing tensions within Mormon culture regarding Mormon history, doctrine, theology, scholarship, feminism.[citation needed] Previously, in the 1970s and 1980s, official LDS Church historian Leonard J. Arrington had encouraged a more open approach to LDS history, allowing greater access to church archives, and encouraging public discussion of controversial topics.[17] As a result, scholars and critics -- from both inside and outside the LDS Church -- began to challenge the validity of LDS historical claims, and theological or doctrinal practices.

This climate of increasing scholarly and public discourse on Mormonism in the 1980s produced a rising concern among some LDS Church leaders about defining and maintaining what they saw as traditional or orthodox views.[18] In 1989, the LDS Church formally advised church members to exercise caution about participating in public discourse and publications, not sponsored by the Church.[19] The LDS Church attempted to quell dissent by warning those whom it saw as testing orthodox boundaries to abandon controversial scholarship or writings, or face church discipline.[citation needed] This approach was seen by scholars and feminists as repressive.[20]

Some scholars and feminists were unwilling to censor their work in public, which brought an institutional church reaction against them.[citation needed] Some BYU professors lost their jobs, while other scholars and feminists were summoned to church disiplinary councils. Rather than quiet the dissent, the disciplining of the September Six and other related cases created much publicity in Utah, and sparked debate as part of a broader discussion of academic freedom.[21]

In addition to the "September Six," a larger number of scholars and feminists were disciplined at that same time or during the years following.[citation needed] Some remain anonymous, while other cases are known.[citation needed] Some were successful in renegotiating their church memberships or delaying discipline, while others lost church jobs or membership.[citation needed]

Three professors at Brigham Young University were "fired" (their contracts not renewed) due to their scholarly work or comment on topics deemed controversial by the Church.[citation needed] Instead of losing Church membership, they lost their jobs. These include David Knowlton, who taught anthropology at BYU, now teaching at UVSC; Cecelia Konchar Farr who taught English, now teaching in Minneapolis-St. Paul; and Gail Houston who also taught English, now teaching in New Mexico. Additionally, another English professor, Eugene England, was pressured into "early retirement" (then tragically overtaken by a fatal illness a few years later).[citation needed]

A half dozen more high-profile writers were excommunicated in the months or years after the September Six event, for similar reasons.[citation needed] These include editor Brent Metcalf and Biblical scholar David Wright, both excommunicated for their work in New Approaches to the Book of Mormon.[citation needed] Also excommunicated were writer Janice Merrill Allred, who has written about the LDS Mother in Heaven, and classics professor, Margaret Merrill Toscano, who has written about Mormon women and priesthood. The latter two are sisters; Margaret is the wife of Paul Toscano.

Mormon feminists were challenging male-dominant theology in the LDS faith, focused on male deity and male priesthood.[22] Some feminists suggested that Mormon women have an historical precedent for exercise of priesthood, and that Mormonism has an inherent feminine theology in need of expression and elaboration.[citation needed]

Feminist writings from Hanks, Quinn, the Toscanos, Anderson, and Allred, all critiqued LDS sexism, arguing from historical awareness.[citation needed] Quinn, Toscano, and Anderson also challenged the LDS Church position: Quinn's research questioned official Mormon history, while Toscano directly challenged church leaders to implement changes.[citation needed]

Four of the September Six, Quinn, Hanks, Toscano and Anderson stated that their discipline originated with General Authorities, notably Elder Boyd K. Packer.[23] Disciplinary proceedings are confidential, but anecdotes from individuals with access to private information suggest that LDS stake presidents and bishops received directives from higher church leaders to discipline intellectuals while taking responsibility for it as an entirely local decision.[24] Some speculate that the apparently synchronized warnings and disciplinary councils over the summer of 1993 suggested that the LDS Apostles directed the disciplinary measures.[25]

Reaction

Reactions to the September Six event within mainstream Mormon circles ranged from apathy to approval to confusion to sympathy. Many LDS people were not even aware of the expulsions;[citation needed] the event was a sudden confrontation between the church leadership and a small scholarly subculture of which most Mormons were unaware. The event took many church members by surprise, and is still not well understood by mainstream Latter-day Saints.[citation needed]

However, the event had repercussions for liberal scholarship and feminism in the contemporary LDS community, greatly discouraging liberals, feminists and "critical" scholarship, while spurring conservative apologetics.[citation needed] Church leaders apparently viewed the disciplinary actions as an opportunity to maintain the doctrinal integrity of the Church and safeguard it from the infiltration of secular ideas or "apostasy."[citation needed]

The September Six event appeared to deliver a strong message that the LDS Church disapproved of members' secular work on Mormonism in the 1990s.[citation needed] Since that time, the LDS Church seems more comfortable with secular discussion of Mormonism.[citation needed] Observers of both trends wonder if the September Six and other casualties ironically helped acclimate the LDS Church to secular study of Mormonism.[citation needed]

Related Beliefs and Church Leadership Comments

Although church leaders usually do not comment on disciplinary actions, they have made general statements relating to the topic.

Criticism of church leaders

Members of LDS faith believe that all revelation for the church as a whole, especially changes in beliefs or doctrine, is revealed through God only to the current prophet, who also serves as President, of the Church.[26]

It is also considered a sin to criticize leaders of the church, even if the criticism is considered correct or justified. The reason for this is the belief that God has called them to their office, and although all men are imperfect, and may in fact be learning how to perform the duties of the office and calling, members should not criticise one whom God has called. This is also true of local congregational leadership.

Church leader, Dallin H. Oaks said:[27]

Criticism is particularly objectionable when it is directed toward Church authorities, general or local. Jude condemns those who ‘speak evil of dignities.’ (Jude 1:8.) Evil speaking of the Lord’s anointed is in a class by itself. It is one thing to depreciate a person who exercises corporate power or even government power. It is quite another thing to criticize or depreciate a person for the performance of an office to which he or she has been called of God. It does not matter that the criticism is true. As Elder George F. Richards, President of the Council of the Twelve, said in a conference address in April 1947, ‘When we say anything bad about the leaders of the Church, whether true or false, we tend to impair their influence and their usefulness and are thus working against the Lord and his cause.’

Females and the Priesthood

Related to women and priesthood, former President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that for women to be ordained to the Priesthood, the prophet would need to receive a revelation from the Lord.[28]

Larry King: So a revelation could come to you or it could come to the pope or the next president or the next pope?
Gordon B. Hinckley: That's what it would take -- that's exactly what it would take.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Whitesides, Lynne. "Spiritual Paths After September 1993." Sunstone Symposium, 2003.
  2. ^ United States v. Mooney, Detention Hearing, June 28, 2005
  3. ^ Excerpts - Strangers in Paradox (Mormon Theology)
  4. ^ Reviews - The Sanctity of Dissent
  5. ^ Reviews - The Sacrament of Doubt
  6. ^ Tidying Up Loose Ends?: The November 2000 Excommunication of Margaret Toscano, 2001 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, Sunstone Magazine.
  7. ^ Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable
  8. ^ Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir - Signature Books
  9. ^ Mormon Alliance Home Page
  10. ^ "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18 (Spring 1985) 9-105
  11. ^ http://www.signaturebooks.com/reviews/magic.htm Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
  12. ^ Reviews - The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power
  13. ^ Reviews - The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power
  14. ^ Lavina Fielding Anderson. "DNA Mormon: D. Michael Quinn," in Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters, edited by John Sillitoe and Susan Staker, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002, pp. 329-363.
  15. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  16. ^ Waterman, Bryan and Brian Kageland. The Lord's University Freedom and Authority at BYU. Signature Books, 1998. ISBN 1-56085-117-1
  17. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  18. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  19. ^ Oaks, Dallin H. "Alternate Voices," Ensign, May 1989, p. 27
  20. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  21. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  22. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  23. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  24. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  25. ^ see The Mormons, a two-part special collaboration between the PBS series Frontline and American Experience
  26. ^ "Modern Prophets and Continuing Revelation". Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  27. ^ Oaks, Dallin H. (1987-02). "Criticism". Retrieved 2008-10-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ King, Larry (1998). Larry King Live. CNN.

Bibliography

External links

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