Mormon church excommunicates man who ran forum for doubting members

John Dehlin ran website that offers doubting Latter-day Saints forum to chat has been kicked out of church after disciplinary hearing

The Guardian, AP, Tuesday 10 February 2015

John Dehlin and his wife Margi Dehlin speak to supporters prior to his
disciplinary council in Utah. Photograph: Eli Lucero/AP

A Mormon man who gained notoriety over the past decade for running a website that offers doubting Latter-day Saints a forum to chat has been kicked out of the church.

John Dehlin announced the decision from regional church leaders Tuesday. He becomes the second high-profile church member to be excommunicated in the past year in what Mormon scholars consider to be the Utah-based faith’s way of keeping dissenters in line.

  

A regional church leader in North Logan told Dehlin in a letter that Mormon officials made a unanimous decision to excommunicate him for apostasy, defined by the church as repeatedly acting in clear public opposition to the faith.

While not a lifelong ban, excommunication is still a rare move that amounts to the harshest punishment available for a church member.

The letter from Bryan King says Dehlin is being kicked out not because he doubted and asked questions about church doctrine, but because he made categorical statements opposing the faith that were disseminated on his website. King wrote that Dehlin’s actions have led others to leave the faith.

“I acknowledge your right to criticize the church and its doctrines and to try to persuade others to your cause,” King writes. “But you do not have the right to remain a member of the church in good standing while openly and publicly trying to convince others that church teachings are in error.”

The decision comes two days after Dehlin met with church leaders in a four-hour disciplinary hearing.

Dehlin, 45, hoped he wouldn’t be excommunicated but told church leaders he could not in good conscience stop operating his website, Mormonstories.org.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spokesman Eric Hawkins said in an email that the church might comment later. Church leaders have not publicly discussed the specifics of Dehlin’s case.

The move is likely to send ripples through the Mormon community. It comes on the heels of the June ouster of Kate Kelly, founder of a group pushing for women to be allowed in the religion’s lay clergy.

Scholars say Kelly and Dehlin are the most high-profile examples of excommunication proceedings since 1993. That year, the church disciplined six Mormon writers who questioned church doctrine, ousting five and kicking out a sixth temporarily.

To supporters, Dehlin is a hero who has risked his standing in the faith to create a much-needed forum where church members could openly discuss sensitive or controversial issues about the faith. About 200 supporters held a vigil for Dehlin on Sunday night outside the church building where his disciplinary hearing took place.

To his detractors, Dehlin is a Latter-day Saint who long stopped believing in the faith’s core tenets and has orchestrated and manipulated his situation to be ousted and earn more attention.

“Dehlin’s choices forced his local leaders to take steps to protect their adherents from one who not only ceased to believe, but who actively sought to have others embrace his disbelief,” said Scott Gordon, co-founder of MormonVoices, an organization that supports the LDS church.

Dehlin is a married father of four who has been a Latter-day Saint his entire life. He is a doctoral candidate in psychology who previously worked in the high-tech industry.

Kate Kelly shows a digital copy of the letter which 

informed her of her excommunication

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness.  …”