Lavina Looks Back: The Inquisitor says: "In teaching the gospel there is no academic freedom..."

Lavina wrote:

22 May 1983

Dawn Tracy publishes an article in the Provo Daily Herald reporting that she talked to fourteen Mormon writers in four states who "had been questioned" by local ecclesiastical leaders. All had contributed to Dialogue, Sunstone, or the Seventh East Press. Roy Doxey, former BYU dean of religious education, says that Apostle Mark E. Petersen "ordered the investigations."

Elder Petersen, whose assignment has long been the investigation and suppression of fundamentalist Mormons, has apparently expanded his mandate to include other individuals whom he defines as enemies of the church. In 1962 he told a conference of seminary and Institute faculty, "In teaching the gospel there is no academic freedom.... There is only fundamental orthodox doctrine and truth."

My note: Wikipedia info on Petersen: Editor, President, COB of Deseret News for a total of 60 years. Apostle 40 years. ---There must be some job/apostleship overlap here. It's unclear how this was allowed. Hardliner on race, gender and doctrinal issues. Italics, bolding mine.

The next several posts will highlight each "enemy" of the church and how they got on the "most wanted" list.

[This is a portion of Dr. Lavina Fielding Anderson's view of the chronology of the events that led to the September Six (1993) excommunications. The author's concerns were the control the church seemed to be exerting on scholarship.]

The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology by Dr. Lavina Fielding Anderson

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V26N01_23.pdf