Latter Day Dissent:At the Crossroads of Intellectual Inquiry and Ecclesiastical Authority

Latter-day Dissent collects, for the first time in book form, stories from the “September Six,” a group of scholars and feminists excommunicated or disfellowshipped from the LDS Church in September of 1993 on charges of “apostasy” or “conduct unbecoming” Church members.
Interviews by Philip Lindholm include members of the “September Six,” Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Paul James Toscano, Maxine Hanks, Lavina Fielding Anderson, and D. Michael Quinn, as well as intellectuals Janice Merrill Allred, Margaret Merrill Toscano, and Thomas W. Murphy. Donald B. Jessee is also interviewed as a former employee of the LDS Church’s Public Affairs Department.
Each interview illustrates the tension that often exists between the Church and its intellectuals while highlighting the difficulty of accommodating congregational diversity and maintaining doctrinal unity—a difficulty hearkening back to the very heart of ancient Christianity.