The September Six

The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect

Boyd K. Packer

The charge that historians should not 'tell everything,' that 'some things that are true are not very useful,' and that in the Church 'we are not neutral.'

The Seventh East Press (1981–1983)

Seventh East Press

What the independent student paper actually printed, and its own contemporaneous account of being banned from campus on 9 February 1983.

Ten Years in Camelot: A Personal Memoir

Davis Bitton

An assistant Church historian's contemporaneous account of how the History Division rose and was dismantled, and the origin of the word 'Camelot.'

An Interview with Sterling McMurrin

Blake Ostler and Sterling M. McMurrin

McMurrin's own words on the First Vision, the Book of Mormon and Packer's address — the text whose publication got the Seventh East Press banned.

The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology

Lavina Fielding Anderson

The dated, named record of two decades of ecclesiastical pressure on Latter-day Saint historians and feminists, assembled by a participant and published four months before her own excommunication.

Talk to the All-Church Coordinating Council, 18 May 1993

Boyd K. Packer

That an apostle publicly named 'the so-called scholars or intellectuals' as one of three dangers four months before the councils convened.

Spiritual Paths After September 1993

Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Paul James Toscano, Maxine Hanks, D. Michael Quinn and Lavina Fielding Anderson

Five of the six speaking together ten years afterward about what they decided, what it cost and where it took them.

A Feminist FHE Discussion with Maxine Hanks

Maxine Hanks

Hanks's own account of what Women and Authority contained, who else was disciplined over it, and the terms on which she returned in 2012.

Chosen Path: A Memoir

D. Michael Quinn

Quinn's own dated account, drawn from his journals, of the History Division, the 1993 accusation, the two earlier councils, and what his stake president said about Packer's weekly phone calls.

Church Defends Keeping Files on Members

Sunstone

The reporting record of the committee's exposure at the 1992 symposium, its executive secretary, and the reaction of Dialogue's editor and BYU faculty.

Six Intellectuals Disciplined for Apostasy; Three September Six Appeals Denied

Sunstone

Council-by-council detail for September 1993 — dates, presiding officers, what was discussed, what each person was told — and the denial of the appeals.

Sunstone news and retrospectives on the discipline of scholars, issues 100–135

Sunstone

That the disciplinary pattern continued past 1993, and the outcomes of the later cases in the participants' and reporters' own words.

Statement on Symposia (First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, 23 August 1991)

First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

The institutional turn from criticising historiography to cautioning members against attending independent symposia at all.

First Presidency statement on the Strengthening Church Members Committee

First Presidency

The Church's own confirmation that the committee exists, its scriptural justification in D&C 123, its membership, and its claim that it neither imposes nor directs discipline.

Keeping Covenants and Honoring the Priesthood (October 1993 general conference)

James E. Faust

The Church's own teaching, delivered eight days after the last council, that there is no 'loyal opposition' in the gospel and that free expression 'should operate within limits.'

Statement by the Council of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve on Church Discipline, January 1994

First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

The Church's formal position that general authorities teach principles and provide information but 'do not direct the decisions of local disciplinary councils.'

Lavina Fielding Anderson and the Power of a Church in Exile

Levi S. Peterson

The documentary course of Anderson's case — her exchanges with her stake president, her thirty-seven-page appeal, and her declaration of belief — quoted from papers she made available.

Contemporary Perspectives on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the September Six (roundtable)

Jana Riess, Benjamin E. Park, Amanda Hendrix-Komoto and others

The scholarly retrospective: the 1989 Handbook's new three-part definition of apostasy, the culture-war context, and the comparison with the Snuffer, Kelly and Dehlin cases.

Church discipline of scholars; the Strengthening Church Members Committee (FAIR answers pages and blog)

FAIR (fairlatterdaysaints.org)

The best-stated faithful reply: that councils are local, that the reasons are not made public, that apostasy is advocacy rather than inquiry, and that two of the six have returned.

The Mormon Purge

Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner

A hostile but document-reproducing compilation issued within weeks of the councils, carrying the Salt Lake Tribune's 2 October 1993 report and the 1982 Arrington release correspondence.