Kate Kelly and John P. Dehlin have been told they may be cast out of the church for apostasy. Kelly has pushed for female ordination and Dehlin has championed LGBT issues.
People walk passed the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.
AP
Kate Kelly ran afoul of church leadership for her efforts to get women ordained to the religion's lay priesthood. She announced in a letter posted Wednesday that church leaders from a local congregation in Washington, D.C., will hold a "disciplinary council" June 22. The council will be held in absentia, Kelly writes, because she has since moved away from the D.C. area and cannot make it back.
Kelly founded Ordain Women, a group of Mormons who have petitioned the LDS Church for greater gender equality, including female ordination. She told BuzzFeed Wednesday the disciplinary process against her has been "opaque" and difficult to understand because she saw her leaders regularly while in Washington D.C., but they waited until she moved away to take action. Kelly also said it appears the church is intentionally sending a message to members who are asking questions.
The news was first reported Wednesday in The New York Times.
Kelly and a group of about 200 women were denied access to an all-male Mormon priesthood meeting last year.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File
Dehlin's work on LGBT issues, as well as on topics like doubt, are apparently what landed him in hot water. Dehlin — who founded a podcast dedicated to "challenging Mormon culture in constructive ways" — said he received a letter Monday inviting him to resign from the church. Dehlin said he has no plans to resign, but called the letter "devastating."
Dehlin's work has grown in popularity, especially among the church's small but increasingly prominent moderate and liberal contingents. His podcasts have been downloaded 50,000 times or more, according to the Times . Dehlin told BuzzFeed he was "trying to be a part of the solution" with his work. "I've tried to spend the past nine years helping people who were in crisis, helping save marriages, helping people who feel like their lives are falling apart, helping people who are suicidal who are gay and lesbian," he said.
Dehlin has spoken out frequently about Mormon-related LGBT issues. Among other things, Dehlin started the Gay Mormon Stories Podcast in 2013 and helped organize a conference that delved into Mormon LGBT issues.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1oVQMzJ
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