SALT LAKE CITY — John Dehlin, excommunicated for apostasy by local LDS Church leaders in North Logan last month, has appealed that decision to the church's First Presidency.
Dehlin's stake president said in a Feb. 9 letter that Dehlin spread false teachings about the church through his Mormon Stories website. The leader said Dehlin did not have the right to remain a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "while openly and publicly trying to convince others that church teachings are in error."
On Feb. 28, the First Presidency responded to an excommunication appeal by Kate Kelly, founder of Ordain Women. Kelly had appealed her June 2014 excommunication by her Virginia LDS bishop, who cited her "aggressive effort to persuade other church members to your point of view and that your course of action has threatened to erode the faith of others."
Kelly appealed the bishop's decision to the stake president, who in October informed Kelly that he had decided to "confirm and sustain the initial decision." She then appealed to the First Presidency, which affirmed the excommunication.
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