Le Fevre (3rd from left) with her family

Mormon feminist and author Cindy Le Fevre could be soon “disciplined” by her LDS leaders. Le Fevre has been informed by letter that her bishop, James T. Harry, is “considering formal disciplinary action in [her] behalf, including the possibility of disfellowshipment or excommunication.” Mormon leaders from her Sacramento congregation will meet on May 15, 2002, to consider the apostasy charges against her.

An English and business professor in Sacramento, Le Fevre has been a frequent speaker in Mormon intellectual, feminist, and gay-friendly forums. Her paper “The Hidden Nazi Mentality in the Proclamation on the Family” comments on a 1995 document by the LDS Church, according to which “gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” The Proclamation on the Family provides the doctrinal backing for the aggressive political campaigns against same-sex marriage that the LDS Church has recently carried out in many parts of the country.

Although most Christian churches no longer excommunicate their members, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to use disciplinary councils, composed exclusively of male priesthood leaders, to “discipline” and expel its members. Although excommunication procedures are supposed to be initiated by local leaders, the LDS Church acknowledged in 1992 the existence of a secretive committee with the sole function of monitoring statements made by its members.

“[W]e must protest, expose, and work against an internal espionage system that creates and maintains secret files on members of the church,” Mormon writer and feminist Lavina Fielding Anderson stated in 1992. Over the years, Anderson has documented many cases of ecclesiastical abuse by church leaders. “[These files] are secretly maintained and seem to be exclusively accusatory in their content,” writes Anderson. “I find such an activity unworthy in every way of the Church of Jesus Christ” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 26:1 [Spring 1993], p. 62).

Le Fevre is puzzled that she is not being told the specific grounds for the charge of apostasy. She feels she is being treated unjustly. She says, “Everything I said in a spirit of honesty, openness, and full cooperation was turned and used as charges against me.” Some members of her family say that if she is excommunicated, they will leave the LDS Church.