I heard from a friend that Mike Quinn passed away. I don't know any details but I'm sure the SL papers will have obits published shortly. To me, he is the end of the era of real Mormon history that flowered in the 1980s and 90s.

I never understood why he stayed in the Mormon Church, but at least he always "called them as he saw them" when it came to Mormon history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._Michael_Quinn

Correction: he was excommunicated as part of the September Six in 1993, but never disavowed his "testimony" as far as I know.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2021 03:11PM by Brother Of Jerry.

From the Mormon perspective not just cut off from Mormonism but any chance of the CK. A process typical of groups like Mormons.

Agreed. He was a very important, very moral person and he embodied the naive optimism of Spencer Kimball, who thought that the facts would bolster rather than belie Mormonism and Mormon history.

As always, it's the people, the members, who bear the cost of the leaders' caprices.

Sad to hear. He seemed like such a decent fellow and a groundbreaker in Mormon history.

It was his two books The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power & Mormonism and the Magic Worldview that opened my eyes to the real history while I was on my mission along with the Tanners' Mormononism-Shadow or Reality that finally shattered my "testimony."

Much respect for Quinn as a person, his career and invaluable research.

I found him puzzling. How he could write what he did and still believe anything is beyond me.

He had such a specialized audience for his subject matter that I wondered cynically if he was just being careful not to alienate his potential book buyers.

He was enlightening for me regardless of his beliefs. RIP Mr. Quinn and thank you for your brilliant contribution that helped me study my way out.

Especially after they ruined his life by discrediting him when they excommunicated him for being honest.

There is no mention of our D. Michael Quinn having died.

But an upstate New York resident by that same name died a few years ago...

I would not mind it if our D.M.Q. was still alive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2021 07:04PM by elderolddog.

Maybe this explains it?:

When you Google D. Michael Quinn, Google dumps you on a page that at the far right features some photos and a blurb from Wikipedia.

The first photo, of a grinning White Man, is the D. Michael Quinn from Upstate New York, from his 2017 obit page. When you click on the photo, you see the photo featured on a photo page and the only thing you can read is "Obituary for D. Michael Quinn."

If our D.M.Q. is still alive, this would be a possible explanation for an erroneous alert from BoJ's friend.

Perhaps they'll reinstate his membership when they reach a more enlightened state. Like they did with Helmuth Huebener.

Sad to learn of this. He was a decent person who made a great contribution to Mormonism, even though the church didn't want it. I have most of his books. Some day I'll get around to reading Quinn's biography of J. R. Clark--a hateful human being.

In the almost six hours since BoJ heard about the passing of D.M.Q. there have been a few posts on Reddit wherein people say, "I just heard about..."

Where are the details? I just now checked the SLTrib website: crickets... as in NOTHING! Not even a story about the reports of his death, which is weird, because that's a space-filler if ever there was one, with the follow-up directly with D.M.Q. on how it feels to be labeled a dead man.

Maybe it's just that having made a living as a skeptic (thus making me a Professional Skeptic), I NEVER take the first notice of an alleged fact at face value.

I just checked the SLTrib site again...

It's got to be about 12 hours now since the first notice of his death went out, with the sources I've found all saying, "I heard this morning that he died" and none of them offering any details whatsoever.

But to counter this, D. Michael Quinn has apparently not corrected the reports, which he could only do if, 1) he's alive, & 2) he's heard about the reports. Surely someone who has heard of his death has his phone number or email address!

But neither the SLTrib nor the LATimes websites have any mention of either his death or the rumors of his death. In the case of the SLTrib, you know that someone or a number of people are trying to run this rumor down! Very weird!



If you're wondering about the relationship of Bro. Quinn and los mormones, here's a quote from a Q & A he had in the Yale Alumni magazine:

"Yale: Do you still believe in the tenets of Mormonism?

"Quinn: I am quite orthodox in the nineteenth-century Mormon sense about Mormon faith planks. But in terms of twenty-first-century Mormonism, I am very radical. I don’t believe Mormonism has all truth, that it’s the one and only true church. I accept truth from whatever sources it comes from, whether Darwin or Marx or whatever direction I find truth. That includes religion, whether it’s Muhammad or Buddha."


Think this through...it's a weird answer...

"I am quite orthodox in the 19th-century Mormon sense about Mormon faith planks."  Does that mean he believes in the First Vision? In the restoration of the priesthood?

Then he goes on to say that mormonism, in his view, doesn't have 'all (the) truth' and that it is not the 'one and only true church.'

Then he goes blah, blah, blah, like The Cat. very disappointing.



OKAY, finally the SLTribe confirmed it: "Quinn, who was discovered dead Wednesday of unspecified causes at his home in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif."

His story is about as heartbreaking as any story.
I don't hate, but I really despise the abusive CULT we were born into, because of what they did to people like him, and Grant Palmer, who were two of the most honest Mormons I ever knew. And the abusive CULT ruined these guys lives, Michael more than Grant, but both of them were excommunicated/Disfellowshipped. I knew Grant personally and had a great correspondence with him and personal face to face conversations. One last conversation I had with him I asked him, if he'd still draw the same conclusions now, that the church has disciplined you, that you drew in the end of "Insider's View of Mormonism" that the church is still true, they just need to focus on Jesus more and Joseph less.
He said he would.
He was deeply hurt by the way he was mistreated by this abusive CULT. The church 'discipliined' both of them, expelled both of them, made them pariah's in their own communities. Grant, went on believing, in Jesus, not Joseph. He really believed he could change the church and make them focus more on Jesus and less on Joseph Smith.
I guess in some regards, they did, from what I hear, since the Polygamy papers came out, the church leaders barely mention Joseph Smith.
But Mormons still sing his praises, knowing he had 'married' (raped) his follower's wives.
I say, "Married" because there is no legal way for a man to 'marry' a women who is already married and never was a law written that would allow that, because it'd make the God who gave us the 10 Commandments, a GD liar.
Even more damningly, it would also make the God of Mormonism a GD liar.
So how can you say the church is still good, if they still teach children to sing the praises of a liar, child rapist/cuckold bull?
He just looked at me with this really sad, tired look and said, "I'm old. I'm too tired to fight. It's your turn." pointing to all of us in the room full of ExMormons.
Those were his last words to me.
And here they are, still ruining people's lives, every GD day.
Still causing people to commit suicide, far more than anywhere else in the country, especially amongst LGBTQ people, still maintaining racist, homophobic, sexist beliefs, despite the evidence to the contrary.
But what both Grant and Michael Quinn died with was their integrity. It may have ruined Michael's life, but he loved it still. Kind of like an abused person in an abusive relationship, overlooks their abuse, because they 'love' their abuser, and the cycle continues, endlessly, from one generation down to the next.

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2021 09:46PM by schrodingerscat.

I agree with your assessment of this quiet, dedicated historian - "Much respect for Quinn as a person, his career, and invaluable research". Written by Ex-Cult Member.

His research was deep, profound, and he also opened my eyes, very wide to the dishonesty of the LDS Church's "so-called-history".

Thanks, Michael Quinn. I regret I did not deliver these words to you in person.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2021 12:09PM by presleynfactsrock.

The Salt Lake Tribune now is reporting his death: https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/04/22/historian-d-micheal-quinn/