The ten-month speaking ban on Linda Newell and Val Avery is lifted. The story is carried by UPI and AP, and published in the Tribune and other major newspapers in the state with the exception of the Deseret News. Linda summarizes the experience: "If you're excommunicated or disfellowshipped, you know what the repentance process is and you get on with your life. But what do you do when you've been punished by people who are handing down decisions they didn't make? I thought a lot about the damage the whole incident had done to me, to the church, my friends, to my family, untold people who were distraught by it, and those who sat in judgement. I went back to my stake president and asked him to talk to Elders Oaks and Maxwell again about reconsidering the ban. I would be participating in a KSL's `Talkabout' program discussing the upcoming Mormon History Association in England, and I knew, with audience participation, that someone would ask me about the ban. I hadn't been in a public setting for the whole ten months when people hadn't discussed it. I pointed out to my stake president the advantages to everyone of being able to say that the situation had been resolved. He said he'd see what he could do. The night before I was to tape the program, he called and said that I was no longer under any restrictions."
[Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
No comments:
Post a Comment