The ‘September Six’ excommunications of 1993:
“Lavina Fielding Anderson was excommunicated and has lived ever since in Mormon limbo… Anderson was never informed exactly what her 1993 apostasy consisted of. But everyone knows that she is being punished for delivering a paper… that compiled data on more than one hundred examples of church repression against intellectuals…
“Avraham Gileadi an independent scriptural scholar, was excommunicated two years after the publication of his technical tome on the Second Coming, The Last Days: Types and Shadows from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Oddly, Gileadi is a conservative; his book avoids the kookiness associated with some of Protestant millennialists; and it was vetted and issued by the church’s own Deseret Book Company. Moreover, he had complied when directed to stop promoting his views. The church has never clarified which of Gileadi’s opinions might be heretical…
“Maxine Hanks is a writer and frequent speaker on feminist topics who was excommunicated for urging that the LDS Priesthood be opened to women. Another presumed provocation was her editing of a 1992 Signature Books anthology, Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, in which contributors discuss female priesthood and another of the hierarchy’s least favorite topics, adoration of Mormonism’s Mother in Heaven…
“Lynn Kanavel Whitesides then president of the Mormon Women’s Forum, was similarly chastised for her public discussion about women’s priesthood and the Mother in Heaven…
“Paul Toscano a Salt Lake City attorney, was a founder of the Mormon Alliance and longtime critic of the church leadership…
“D. Michael Quinn the most important scholar among The September Six and a resigned Brigham Young University historian, wrote a 1985 Dialogue article on church leaders’ secret involvement in polygamy after the 1890 Manifesto, and the 1987 Signature book Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, which raised questions about the spiritual roots of Joseph Smith’s religion.”
Richard and Joan Ostling, Mormon America (San Francisco, CA: HarperOne, 13 October 2009), 352-357.
