The Art of Dissent Among the Mormons - Sunstone Magazine

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SuNrnNE Founded in 1974 SCOTT KENNEY 1975-1918 ALLEN D. ROBERTS 1978-1980 PEGGY FLETCHER 1978-1966 DANIEL RECTOR 1986-1991 - Editor and Publishrr ELBERT EUGENE PECK Managing Edilvr Assistant Publisher BRIAN KAGEL GREGORY A. KEMP Senior Editor Administrative Assisrnnt MARTHA DICKEY ESPLIN CAROL QUlST Assxiare Editors Electronu Prndiut~on GREG CAMPBELL MARKJ. MALCOLM BRYAN WATERMAN Older FulJillment VICTOR GENER Section Editors M. SHAYNE BELL, poetry: DENNIS CLARK, poetry revlews ERIC JONES, book reviews, TERESA WHITING. new books Advisory Editorial Board PAT BAGLEY BRlAN BEAN. T. E. BEHREND JAY 5. BYBEE. CONNIE DISNN MICHAEL HARWARD. LYNNE KANr\VEL WHITESIDES Contrtbunng Columnists ORSON SCOTT CARD. DORICE WILLIAMS ELLIOTT MICHAEL HICKS. DAVID KNOWLTON. TOM LEFLER MARYBETH RAYNES. PETER SORENSEN Cartoonists PAT BAGLEY. STEVE BENSON, JOHN DEROSIER KIRK ANDERSON. MATT CHATTERLY.CHRIS CHECKElTS KENT CHRISTENSEN. GEOFF JONES. STEVE KROPP CARL MCBWER. ROBERT MURRAY. P 5. MUELLER BRUCE READE. BRAD VELEY, RYAN 5. WAYMENT Vdantcers ANN BENSON. JANE CARBINE, htELISSA CARBINE ROSS MAMMOND.LLOYD PENDLETON, DALW ROBBINS CAROLEE STOUT. BFADY STOUT. CRlS CORSER U.S. Corrvsponrlents STAN CHRISTENSEN. Cambridge, Ma. NANCY HARWARD.Newark. De. RENEE CARLSON. Potomac, Md. ALICE ALLRED POTTMYER, Arlington. Va. NEAL & REBECCA CHANDLER. Shaker He~ghts. Oh. JONATHAN &COLLEEN THOhWS, Ch~cago. 11. MILES SPENCER KIMBALL.Ann Arbor. Mi. KARL SANDBERG. St. Paul, hln. LIONEL GRADY.Cedar City, Ut.; RON PRIDDIS. Salt JOHN &JANET TARJAN. Bakersfield. Ca. IRENE BATES, PaclBc Palisades. Ca. City, Ut. h(ernaftona1 Cot-~npondt,ne MARJORIE NR\TON. Austrl~a: WlLFRlED DECOO. Belgium HARTMUT WEISSMANN. France PAUL CARPENTER. JAhlES FIELD WERNER HOCK, DIETRICH KEhlPSKI. Germany SHUNlCHl KUWAHATA.Japan IAN BARBER.New Zealand; CHRIS SEXTON. Unltcd K~ngdom - THE SUNSTONE FOUNDATION Boord ojX~sves J. BONNER RITCHIE, chair; KENT FROGLEY. vice chair BLAINE CARLTON. ROBYN KNIBBE. GLEN MhlBERT MARY ANN MORG4N. LOUIS MOENCH DANIEL H. RECTOR. ELBERT EUGENE PECK E~ecutivr Dilvctor ELBERT EUGENE PECK Drveloprnmt hard BLAINE CARLTON, chair: RONALD L. MOLEN, vice chnlr JEROLD KINDRED. ROBYN KNIBBE, DANIEL H. RECTOR hURGARET REISER. NICHOL4S ShllTH hlAR5HA 5. STEWART.MARKJ. WILLIAMS Sympnium Cllatlz MOLLY RENNION.h\de KATHY OKERLUND. tV*hington, D.C. ANN STONE & COLLEEN TtIOMAS. Chlcngo KIM htcCALL. Burbank DON GUSTAVWN. Boston Nuticmctl Advisoty &Hlr[I AWN ACKROYD.hlOLLY BENNLON. KATHERINE BOSI\'ELL BELLAMY BROWN.TONY &ANN GINNON. COLE CAPENER STEPHEN C. CLARK. DOUGWS CONDIE, D.IAMES CROFT ROBERT FILLERUE MARK GUSTAVSON JEFFREY R. HARDYMAN.GREG KOFFORD, FARRELL LINES BRIAN C. MCGA\'lN, PATRICK MCKENZIE. GRANT OSBORN RICHARD SHERLOCK. GEORGE D. SMITH JR. RICHARD SOUTH WICK. LORlE WINDER STROhlBERG NOW \Z! \:.ALLACE. DENNIS & CARWN YOUKSTETTER BRAVA! IT IS IRONIC that in Deborah Mayhew's letter recommending ways to promote the equality of women and marriage partners in language, she buys into one of its biggest enemies-hierarchy ("Sweet Partners," SUN- STONE, Nov. 1993). Her suggestion that the general Relief Society president be called President Jack instead of Sister Jack puts an unneeded distance between our leaders and the membership. It is my understanding that the choice of the sister title was made by the women themselves. Brava! Equality ddesn't mean sameness, nor copying the cdrmpt organization of the men. Women better serve the Church by offering their own gifts and insights rather than in counterfeiting the men's. MEIANIE Hilo, HI "patience" of today's leaders seem like a child's. If God replies to strong criticism with conversation, why should today's living prophets be above such dialogue? They appear to be more like Richard Nixon, stonewalling to "defend the office of the Presidency" than individuals striving to be Godlike. Los Angeles RIGHTS & OBLIGATIONS THE DISCUSSION of the procedures relative to the "September Six," it'is remarkable that neither those in favor of the process as it occurred, nor those who oppose it, have focused on an obvious obligation of the Quo- CHAPMAN rum of the Twelve and the right and power of such persons to exercise that obligation; that is, the obligation to keep the Church free ORACLES from apostasy, and the right to exercise the power to do so. The obligation, right, and WHEN I READ your reporr that the power of the Quorum of the Twelve collecgeneral authorities consider criticism of them tively, or an apostle individually, to deal imto be inappropriate and even grounds for mediately and directly with apostasy seems apostasy, I was shocked, shocked! ("Six Intel- so obvious as to require no extended justifilectuals Disciplined for Apostasy," SUN- cation. The Church is ultimately a kingdom, STONE. Nov. 1993). Have they assumed an not somethng else. unapproachable, holy status that even God On the merits of the publicized cases and does not demand? Consider the prophets' . . other similar situations. there is much to genuine anger at God reported in the Old prompt sadness and introspection and dis- Testament. At times, they spewed an uncen- cussion and action. But on the procedures, it sored rage to God; they were not afraid to seems to me that the basics should be clear. argue with him. Many of their harsh state- JOSEPHB. ROMNEY ments sound similar to the lamentations of Rexburg, ID Paul Toscano against the general authorities. There is one difference, however. When IN MORMON ANOREXIA ELDER the prophets bitched, God replied with long answers and arguments, engaging the angry OAKS said in a National Public disciples in the dialogue Elbert Peck yearns Radio interview that the excommunicating of for ("Lamentations in The Fall," SUNSTONE, five of the "September Six" was not a purge, Nov. 1993). But when "feminists, gays, and that a handful of individuals out of millions so-called scholars" voice their criticisms, they is not a purge. Well, it wasn't China's Cultural are fed stones, silenced, and excommuni- Revolution, but my dictionary defines purge cated-no argument, no dialogue, no rela- as: "to free from impurities, to purify; to tionship. Even Joseph Smi~h and Jesus remove by or as if by cleansing; to rid . . . directly expressed their doubts ("0 God, people considered undesirable; to cause where art thou!" [DQC 1211; "My God, why hast thou forsaken me!" [Matt. 27:461) and received answers. Oracles of God, by definition. should s~eak, discuss, and. yes. rebuke: but should tiey reject without 'having any face to face conversation with genuine responses? Look at how long God labored in d~alogue w~th ancient Israel; it makes the evacuation of the bowels." Interesting, in that same interview, Elder Oaks asserted his "responsibility to look after the purity of the doctrine to make sure that wolves do not enter the flock." Keeping the Church pure by eliminating the undesirables sure sounds like purging to me. When I cough up a small, imtating chicken bone, my body has purged FEBRUARY 1994
itself of something, no matter how small. I wish Elder Oaks would quit being a lawyer and quibbling over words. By his standard, I suppose, the seventeen individuals killed at Haun's Mill hardly makes it a massacre. THOMAS ADAMS New Orleans, LA MODERNIST HERESY THE BEST I can recommend for those who care about the so-called current crisis that is leading some individuals out of the Church (voluntarily or involuntarily) and creating a need to defend oneself to others, including leaders (local and general), is a three-page book review by James E. Faulconer ("Hans Kung's Theobgy: Not Quite for the Millennium," SUNSTONE, Feb. 1990). It considers the situation of a scholar with good intentions trying to reform the Catholic Church. I will summarize what I think Faulconer intended and apply it to the current situation. Genuine postmodemism is not relativism or nihilism. To be postmodem is to be able to talk, think, discuss, and teach about God and the Church the way prophets and the scriptures do, without detouring into either extreme of modernism: rational theology (which focuses on reason in such forms as scientism and objectivism) or romanticism (which focuses on feeling and intuition in such forms as subjectivism and emotionalism). Oppression is not possible if we understand priesthood as it was revealed to the Prophet Joseph in Doctrine and Covenants 121. The Restoration offered a genuinely postmodern alternative to an apostate modernist world in need of healing. The current struggles over notions of academic freedom and questioning the disciplining of members who have so-called liberal or conservative views is what results from having our minds decoyed for years by these extremes of modernism. We draw near God with our lips, it seems, but our hearts are far away when we teach the gospel using popular doctrines of the day. All of us need repentance. Restoration, not reformation, is still required by the Lord, his scriptures, and our prophets. That we will understand the gospel without the baggage of modernism and be converted to it and not to some modem notion of it is my prayer. The libertarian slogan "the lesser of two evils is still evil" still applies. But does that mean that scholarly work is contrary to the gospel? No, as Hugh Nibley has said in many talks and books but God does expect better than the modernistic stuff we have created to date, whether by leaders (see Elder McConkie's description of a "general authority" in Mormon Doctrine) or scholars. We all need repentance; we all need healing from our pride, lack of love, contentiousness, defensiveness, misunderstanding, and judgmentalness. And we all need to forgive others. Church courts, regardless of how we perceived them in the past, need to become sensitive to the gospel and the Lord's Spirit, and guard against embracing modernism in their judicial responsibilities. Decisions to excommunicate or disfellowship are not acts with consequences like those performed by the Catholic Church against Galileo. They are necessary steps in our full repentance and lead to r end, hdI-sou1ed fellowship following the commission of certain well-marketed sins; they are essential to experiencing the miracle of forgiveness. Actingwith priesthood authority and with the Spirit presents an awesome responsibility for any leader, and the scriptures make clear how it works and does not work. The Jaredites, the Nephites, and the Lamanites had the same truths, and they (Church leaders included) fell. Let us all learn from their experiences and extend the olive leaf to those with whom we may be on opposing ends of the modernist heresy. If we can do this, then we are not past feeling; we can still repent. PAULA. FINCH Sicily, Italy "Do you need some help with your zipper!" FEBRUARY 1994 PAGE 3
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Page 7 and 8: could back off and be less concerne
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standing" as a demonstration of the
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S U N S T O N E order to define the
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S U N S T O N E sarily engaged in a
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S U N S T O N E SUMMARY Naturalisti
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himselo, would soon be available. A
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S U N S T O N E advances arguments
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S U N S T O N E then on the Sabbath
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S U N S T O N E PREFACE FOR AN ALBU
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S U N S T O N E how to give good gi
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S U N S T O N E the platter nor how
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maxed by the martyrdom of the Proph
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my. life" (128). The admiration was
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' / "MOST WUTBD" 1 These are the LD
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BYU CHANGES HOUSING POLICY SEPARATE
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THE MORMON "BABYMAKER" AIRS DURING
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had found the twenty-nine-year-old
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BYU WORKS TO CREATE FOUR-YEAR BACHE
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SUNSPOTS OXYMORMON BECAUSE I HAVE A
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I THE GREAT APOSTASY I TVE d r SEER
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The Art of Dissent Among the Mormons - Sunstone Magazine

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