[Leonard Arrington]
We have been saddened by the excommunications. We simply cannot regard Lavina [Fielding Anderson] and Mike [Quinn] as apostates. Both are splendid, honest writers and historians, both have been active believers. We can't see the justice of excommunicating someone who writes honest, sincere, history. We were counseled by Presidents [N. Eldon] Tanner, [Harold B.] Lee, and [Spencer W.] Kimball to write honest history, and now two of us are excommunicated for doing what the Prophets have counseled us to do. I keep thinking that Bill Nelson will pull out my file and send it to my stake president one of these days.
I am beginning to feel old. I don't have as much energy as I used to have. I am not as enthusiastic as I used to be. I get depressed every time I read the newspaper-so much conflict, so much cruelty, so much evil. Maybe that's why I like [television courtroom drama] Matlock-he always finds the culprit and wins. Or opera, where depth of emotion is expressed in music in a way that creates catharsis and healing.
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
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