Welcome to the Mormon Alliance Web site!

The Mormon Alliance was established July 4, 1992, to identify and document ecclesiastical/spiritual abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church), to promote healing and closure for its survivors, to build more sensitive leadership, to empower LDS members to participate with more authenticity in Mormonism, and to foster a healthier religious community.

The Alliance dissolved in December 2016. This site remains as an on-going source (1) to make the Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance, Vols. 1-3, available online, and (2) to remain a point of contact for those with questions, information, or abuse reports.

Long-time Mormon Alliance supporter, Francis Nelson Henderson, is continuing the second function. Please feel free to raise questions, report abuse, and discuss concerns with him at (858) 668-6943 (with text for call back when no answer), email: francisnh12@gmail.com. (Updated Feb 20, 2024)

A DOCUMENTARY CASE STUDY — RECOMMENDED

David P. Wright — “Pushed Out of My Spiritual and Cultural Home”
Dianne T. Wright — “The Family Church, the Family Disciplinary Council: A Personal Response”

These two companion accounts provide one of the most complete and personally revealing records preserved by the Mormon Alliance of ecclesiastical discipline and its consequences. David Wright documents the disciplinary process from the perspective of the scholar subjected to it; Dianne Wright records its effects upon the spouse and family. Read together, their accounts show how institutional discipline can reach beyond questions of belief into conscience, marriage, family relationships, community belonging, and personal identity. The Mormon Alliance preserves these accounts as an especially important documentary case study of ecclesiastical abuse.

IN MEMORIAM

Lavina Fielding Anderson (1944–2023)
Lavina Fielding Anderson was a founding trustee of the Mormon Alliance and, with Janice Merrill Allred, became co-chair of its Case Reports Committee in 1992. For two decades she helped document accounts of ecclesiastical and spiritual abuse and preserve the experiences of Church members whose voices might otherwise have been lost. A respected writer, editor, and historian, Anderson was also one of the “September Six,” disciplined by the LDS Church in September 1993; she was excommunicated after publicly documenting patterns of ecclesiastical abuse. She continued attending LDS services for the remainder of her life and sought rebaptism, while declining to repudiate the work for which she had been disciplined. Her scholarship, moral independence, and commitment to documenting the experiences of others remain central to the legacy of the Mormon Alliance.

Lynne Kanavel Whitesides (1953–2022)
Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was a founding trustee of the Mormon Alliance and one of the “September Six.” In September 1993 she was disfellowshipped from the LDS Church after publicly discussing her religious views, including her understanding of the feminine divine. Whitesides brought to the Mormon Alliance a concern for individual conscience and for the personal consequences of ecclesiastical discipline. Her experience became part of the very history the Alliance was created to document: the conflict that can arise when sincere personal conviction and open expression encounter institutional religious discipline. Her courage in speaking publicly about her beliefs and experiences deserves remembrance as part of the Mormon Alliance’s history.