September Six

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The September Six were six Mormons who were excommunicated or disfellowshipped by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS Church, or Mormons) in September 1993 for speaking against Church doctrine and leadership. The alliterative term "September Six" was coined by the The Salt Lake Tribune and the term was used in the media and subsequent discussion. This purge of intellectuals was referred to by critics of the LDS Church as an example of the anti-intellectual posture of the LDS leadership.[citation needed] Faithful LDS members counter that the church was in its rights to excommunicate the six.

Contents

[edit] 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. Procedures pertaining to the organization of these disciplinary councils is found in the sacred LDS text Doctrine and Covenants, Section 102 and when a member is brought into these councils they are notified beforehand by the local leaders of the Church in that area.

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.

[edit] Short biographies of the six individuals

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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 LDS Apostle Boyd K. Packer's intervention.[citation needed] The reasons for why he was excommunicated on September 15 are uncertain. According to Margaret Toscano, whose husband was among the September Six and who would also later be excommunicated, Gileadi's "books interpreting Mormon scripture challenged the exclusive right of leaders to define doctrine." [3] Gileadi has been re-baptized and is an active member of the church.[4][5] He has since written works on Isaiah, including The Literary Message of Isaiah (2002) and Isaiah Decoded: Ascending the Ladder to Heaven (2002).

[edit] Paul Toscano

Paul Toscano[6] is a Salt Lake City attorney who co-authored with Margaret Merrill Toscano a controversial book, Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology[7] (1990), and, in 1992, co-founded The Mormon Alliance; he later wrote the book The Sanctity of Dissent[8] (1994) and its sequel The Sacrament of Doubt[9] (2007).

He was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on September 19, 1993; the reason for his excommunication as given by church leaders was his apostasy and false teaching. According to Toscano, the actual reason was insubordination in refusing to curb his sharp criticism of LDS Church leaders' preference for legalism, ecclesiastical tyranny, white-washed Mormon history, and hierarchical authoritarianism that privilege the image of the corporate LDS Church above its commitment to its members, to the teachings and revelations of Joseph Smith its founding Prophet, and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.[10]

In 2007, Toscano wrote that he lost his faith "like losing your eyesight after an accident" and that he regrets that LDS Church leaders have disregarded his criticisms of the Church's growing anti-intellectualism, homophobia, misogyny, and elitism.[11]

His wife Margaret[12] faced her own ecclesiastical tribunal for her doctrinal and feminist views and was excommunicated on the 30th of November 2000.[13]

[edit] 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.[14] She continues her work on women's studies in Mormonism and religion.

[edit] 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,[15] the definitive edition of the Lucy Mack narrative. She is 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.[16]

[edit] 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.[17] He also authored the 1987 book, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View,[18] 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[19] and a companion volume The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power,[20] 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.[21]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Whitesides, Lynne. "Spiritual Paths After September 1993." Sunstone Symposium, 2003.
  2. ^ United States v. Mooney, Detention Hearing, June 28, 2005
  3. ^ "What other judgment can I judge by but my own?". http://www.thelizlibrary.org/undelete/library/library012.html. 
  4. ^ Hanks, Maxine. "Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism". Signature Books. http://www.signaturebooks.com/outofprint/women.htm. Retrieved on 2009-02-14. 
  5. ^ Redelfs, John W. (2003-08-09). "The September Six Today". The Mail Archive. http://www.mail-archive.com/zion@topica.com/msg04375.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-14. 
  6. ^ See, www.paultoscano.com
  7. ^ Excerpts - Strangers in Paradox (Mormon Theology)
  8. ^ Reviews - The Sanctity of Dissent
  9. ^ Reviews - The Sacrament of Doubt
  10. ^ Toscano, Paul (2008). ""The Sanctity of Dissent"". in Stephen Banks (ed.), series ed. Joanne B. Ciulla. Dissent and the Failure of Leadership. New Horizons in Leadership Studies. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar. pp. 169–181. ISBN 978-1-84720 575-9. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=7Bf272AsIDwC&dq=Dissent+and+the+Failure+of+Leadership&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=cSn8Prvjkv&sig=x05-n7ihKBu3HPn0yhWc0pMevf4&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA6,M1. 
  11. ^ Toscano, Paul (2007). The Sacrament of Doubt. Signature Books. pp. 147–156. ISBN 1560851465. 
  12. ^ See, www.margarettoscano.com
  13. ^ Tidying Up Loose Ends?: The November 2000 Excommunication of Margaret Toscano, 2001 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, Sunstone Magazine.
  14. ^ Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable
  15. ^ Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir - Signature Books
  16. ^ Mormon Alliance Home Page
  17. ^ "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18 (Spring 1985) 9-105
  18. ^ http://www.signaturebooks.com/reviews/magic.htm Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
  19. ^ Reviews - The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power
  20. ^ Reviews - The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power
  21. ^ 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.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

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