Paul Toscano

The September Six were six members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who were excommunicated or disfellowshipped by the church in September 1993, for allegedly publishing scholarly work against Mormon doctrine or criticizing church doctrine or leadership. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and the term was used in the media and subsequent discussion. The LDS Church's action was referred to by some as evidence of an anti-intellectual posture on the part of church leadership.

Lynne Kanavel Whitesides is a Mormon feminist noted for speaking on the Mother in Heaven. Whitesides was the first of the group to experience church discipline. She was disfellowshipped September 14, 1993. Though technically still a member, Whitesides claims that she "burst" out of the church and her marriage in 1993, and now considers herself a practitioner of Native American philosophies.

Avraham Gileadi is a Hebrew scholar and literary analyst who is considered theologically conservative. Following his 1981 Ph.D. in Ancient Studies from Brigham Young University, he published a new interpretive translation of the Book of Isaiah in 1988, and a study of its eschatological prophesies in 1991. Mormon scholars including Hugh Nibley, Truman G. Madsen and Ellis Rasmussen praised his work, but his argument that the Isaiah prophesies pointed to a human "Davidic king" who would emerge in the last days, apart from Jesus Christ, was controversial, and his second book was pulled from the shelves by its publisher, LDS Church-owned Deseret Book. The reasons for his excommunication on September 15 are unclear. According to Margaret Toscano (whose husband was among the September Six and who would also later be excommunicated), Gileadi's "books interpreting Mormon scripture challenged the exclusive right of leaders to define doctrine", a characterization that Gileadi himself disputes. The church afterwards reversed its disciplinary action against him and expunged it from the church's records, meaning it was to be officially regarded as having never happened. Gileadi is currently an active member of the church. He has continued to write books on Isaiah, including The Literary Message of Isaiah (2002) and Isaiah Decoded: Ascending the Ladder to Heaven (2002).

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