Part 4
White Bird Flying:
My Struggle for a More Loving,
Tolerant, and Egalitarian Church
Janice M. Allred
[Letter to First Presidency]
Janice Merrill Allred, a theologian, homemaker, and mother of nine in
Provo, Utah, was chastised for her theological papers by her stake president and
bishops in a series of meetings beginning in November 1992. She was placed on
formal probation in October 1994 and instructed that she could not take the
sacrament, attend the temple, hold a Church calling, or speak or pray in church
meetings. She agreed to these restrictions, which are identical with those of
disfellowshipment, technically a more severe punishment; however, she refused to
accept three conditions that her bishop later imposed that attempted to restrict
her speaking and publishing. Although Janice took the position that her writing
was a critique of ideas and not an attack on the General Authorities or on the
Church, a new trial was convened and she was excommunicated for
"apostasy" on May 9, 1995.
Janice was born, the second of eight children, to John A. Merrill and
Lenna Petersen Merrill, in Mesa, Arizona. She attended Brigham Young University
as an English major where she met David Allred, who had grown up in Littleton,
Colorado, and served his mission in Guatemala El Salvador Mission. They were
married in the Mesa Arizona Temple in 1969; Janice finished her B.A. in English
earlier that same year. After David's graduation from BYU in chemistry in 1971
and the birth of their first child, Rebecca, they moved to Princeton, New
Jersey, where David completed a combined doctorate in chemistry and physics in
1977, and where Nephi and Joel were born.
David's work then took him to Oak Ridge, Tennessee (1976-77), Tucson,
Arizona (1977-80), Troy, Michigan (1980-87), and Provo, Utah (1987-to present).
During this period Ammon, Miriam, Enoch, Jared, and Paul were born. Janice was
pregnant with their ninth child, John Isaiah, in 1992 when the events in this
account begin.
At the time of the first court in October 1994, Rebecca had recently
married Tom Bills of Ohio in the Manti Temple; their first child, Jacob, was
born in March 1995. They were living nearby in Provo while both of them finished
school. (Their second child, Joseph, followed in June 1996.) Nephi had recently
returned from his mission in Chile and Joel had just departed to serve his, also
in Chile. Ammon, age sixteen, was a senior in high school; Miriam, age thirteen,
was attending high school; Enoch (eleven), Jared (nine), and Paul (six), were in
grade school, and John Isaiah, the youngest, was two.
During this ordeal, Janice has remained soft-spoken, steadfast in her
focus on the rights of members to engage Mormon theology deeply, willing to
discuss the issues with anyone, and patient. She loves the temple and feels that
the sacrament is a deeply meaningful ordinance; being deprived of both has been
very painful to her. Also deeply hurtful is her priesthood leaders'
characterization of her as disobedient. In her entire life, she had never
refused a calling, been unworthy of a temple recommend, or had even a mildly
deviant lifestyle. For such a woman to meet with official disdain when she took
a stand on an issue of conscience and personal integrity seemed a diminishment
of a lifetime of commitment. The Allreds have remained active in their ward,
despite the discomfort they feel and despite some unpleasant incidents.
An account of the first disciplinary council appeared under the title of
"My Controversy with the Church" in the Spring 1995 (Vol. 6, No. 1)
issue of the Mormon Women's Forum Quarterly, and a much abbreviated account of
the second disciplinary council followed under the title, "On Being
Excommunicated" (Quarterly, 6, no. 3 [Fall 1995—mailed September 1996]:
3-6).
For purposes of stylistic consistency, punctuation, capitalization, dates,
and other matters of style in documents quoted in this account have been
standardized.
