Lavina Looks Back: Writer scolded for interviewing the Tanners.

[A continuation of writers being questioned about their work.]

Lavina wrote: May 22, 1983

Gary James Bergera of Provo, also interviewed, commented: "My stake president told me that if the prophet told me to do something wrong, I would be blessed if I obeyed. He said what I had written was anti-Mormon because it wasn't uplifting."

The stake president, Penrod Glazier, singled out an article about Jerald and Sandra Tanner published in Seventh East Press and a news story Gary had coauthored on an anti-Mormon conference in Alta published in Sunstone Review. According to Bergera, the stake president "said it was clear in the article that I didn't support the Tanners. But because I interviewed them I came close to supporting them." Bergera's stake president denies that he is acting on orders from anyone else but several years later confirms to another stake president that he was asked to "watch over" Bergera by Elder Mark E. Petersen.

My notes: If anyone can find the offending Tanner interview published in the Seventh East Press I'd be grateful for the link. Sorry for all the edits.

[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/wpcontent/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V26N01_23.pdf