Mormon group founder faces removal

SALT LAKE CITY — Two months after Mormon Kate Kelly led hundreds in a demonstration to shed light on gender inequality in the religion — defying church orders to stay off Temple Square — the founder of a prominent Mormon women’s group is facing excommunication.

Kelly said she was shocked, dismayed and devastated to receive a letter Sunday from the bishop of her congregation in Virginia informing her that a disciplinary hearing had been set for June 22 to discuss the possibility of her ouster. The leader of Ordain Women is accused of apostasy, defined as repeated and public advocacy of positions that oppose church teachings.

John P. Dehlin, the creator of a website that provides a forum for church members questioning their faith, is facing the same fate. He received his letter from a local church leader in Logan, Utah, on Monday, giving him until June 18 to resign from the faith or face an excommunication hearing. The letter says church leaders are concerned about Dehlin’s recent comments about no longer believing fundamental teachings of the faith.

The cases against the two lifelong members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mark the most high-profile examples of excommunication proceedings since 1993, said Armand Mauss, a retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University. That year, the church disciplined six Mormon writers who questioned church doctrine, ousting five and kicking out a sixth only temporarily.

Church leaders seem to be drawing a line between private or informal expressions of discontent with church teachings and public protests aimed at pressuring the church, Mauss said.

“The LDS Church is not a democratic institution, and has never claimed to be,” Mauss said in an email. “So such actions are interpreted by church leaders as attempts to displace or undermine their legitimate authority over church policies and teachings.”

Singling out two critics of church policy who have made themselves very visible seems like “boundary maintenance” by the church, said Jan Shipps, a retired religion professor from Indiana who is a non-Mormon expert on the church.

“They are saying to folks: ‘If you go this far, you are risking your membership,’ ” Shipps said.

Church officials said in a statement Wednesday that there is room for questions and sincere conversations about the faith, but that some members’ actions “contradict church doctrine and lead others astray.”

In certain cases, local leaders step in to clarify false teachings and ensure other members aren’t misled, the church’s statement said. Disciplinary hearings only come after members are counseled and encouraged to change behavior.

“Some members in effect choose to take themselves out of the church by actively teaching and publicly attempting to change doctrine to comply with their personal beliefs,” the statement reads. “This saddens leaders and fellow members.”