RELIGION
Friday, January 16, 2015
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Duke nixes plan to use chapel
for Muslim call to prayer
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) —
Days after announcing that a
Muslim call to prayer would
echo from its historic chap-
el tower, Duke University
changed course Thursday
emails objecting to the plan.
Instead, Muslims will
gather for their call to prayer
in a grassy area near the
210-foot gothic tower be-
fore heading into a room in
Duke Chapel for their week-
ly prayer service. The uni-
versity had previously said
AP Photo/The Herald Journal, John Zsiray, File
In this May 2014 file photo, John Dehlin sits in his basement studio where he broad-
casts his podcast at his home in North Logan, Utah.
Mormon who runs website for
faith questions faces discipline
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)
— A lifelong Mormon well-
known for running a website
that provides a forum for
church members questioning
their faith said Thursday he
is set to be kicked out of the
religion.
John Dehlin of Logan
said a regional church lead-
er informed him Wednesday
night that a disciplinary hear-
ing is scheduled for Jan. 25,
at which Dehlin is likely to
be censured or excommuni-
cated.
Excommunication is rare
and amounts to the harshest
punishment available for a
church member.
Dehlin said he was told
last year that his website
Mormonstories.org and his
public support of same-sex
marriage were reasons he
is being accused of aposta-
“repeatedly acting in clear,
open, and deliberate public
opposition to the church or
its faithful leaders, or persist-
ing, after receiving counsel,
in teaching false doctrine.”
Dehlin has released letters
from the church leader that
were given to him in August
and this month. The letters
focus on Dehlin’s question-
ing of key church doctrine,
the forum he provides via
the website for doubters, and
him becoming an ordained
minister in another faith.
The documents do not
mention his support for gay
marriage.
Dehlin says he would like
to remain a member of The
Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints but won’t
give up the website or pull
back his support for gays
and lesbians. He has faced
church discipline multiple
times over the past decade.
“I still love the church, I
still love Mormonism,” Deh-
lin said. “But I would certain-
ly rather be excommunicated
than violate my conscience.”
Lake City-based Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints said in a statement
they won’t discuss Dehlin’s
case out of privacy concerns.
Spokesman Eric Haw-
kins said in a statement that
church leaders have clearly
spelled out the reasons for
the discipline in letters to De-
hlin, leaving it up to Dehlin
to release the documents.
The latest letter, dated Jan.
8 from regional church lead-
er Bryan King, is only three
paragraphs long and says
that after carefully weighing
activity on Dehlin’s social
media sites, King decided to
convene the upcoming dis-
ciplinary council. He invit-
ed Dehlin to participate and
bring witnesses and other ev-
idence for his case.
A previous letter from
August shows King calling
on Dehlin to apologize for
false statements he has made
about God, Jesus Christ and
the Book of Mormon. It also
asks him to stop running the
forum for people to criticize
the church and refrain from
promoting groups that push
doctrines contrary to Mor-
mon beliefs.
Dehlin said King and an-
other church leader have ver-
bally mentioned his support
of gay rights and the group
Ordain Women as reasons
for concern, even though
they are not in the letters.
Dehlin’s hearing comes
seven months after the
church
excommunicated
Kate Kelly, founder of Or-
dain Women, a prominent
Mormon women’s group
that staged demonstrations
in a push for women to be
allowed to join the faith’s lay
clergy.
That move sent ripples
throughout Mormon com-
munities around the country
and was described by schol-
ars as boundary maintenance
and a warning to others.
Scholars say Kelly and
Dehlin are the most high-pro-
-
nication proceedings since
1993, when the church disci-
plined Mormon writers who
questioned church doctrine,
kicking out a sixth person.
s h i
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even a little bit of confusion,
both within the campus and
certainly outside, about what
Duke was doing,” Schoen-
feld said. “The purposes and
goals and even the facts had
been so mischaracterized as
to turn it into a divisive sit-
uation, not a unifying situa-
tion.”
He also said there were
concerns about safety and
security, but he declined to
elaborate on whether any
-
ceived.
Graham, the son of the
Rev. Billy Graham, wrote
later in the day that the uni-
versity made the right deci-
sion to cancel the plan to use
the tower. However, Schoen-
feld said the reversal was not
due to Graham’s opposition.
Shalini Subbarao, 19, a
sophomore from St. Louis,
said she was disappointed
with the school’s reversal as
she walked past the chapel.
“I thought it was really
progressive. It showed our
openness to other religions,”
she said of the original plan.
Ios Kotaogiannis, a
39-year-old doctoral can-
didate in computer science
who is from Greece, said he
their decision.
“I’m a secular person. I’m
not against religion. I think
religion is good. But it has its
place — inside the chapel,”
he said.
by the school as a Christian
church but also hosts Hindu
services and has been used
for Buddhist meditations.
The chapel’s associate
dean for religious life, Chris-
ty Lohr Sapp, said before the
plans were canceled that the
move showed the school’s
commitment to religious plu-
ralism. In a column written
for The News & Observer
of Raleigh, Lohr Sapp ac-
knowledged the headlines
generated by violence by
extremists in ISIS, Boko Ha-
ram and al-Qaida, contrast-
ing it to what’s happening on
campus.
“Yet, at Duke University,
the Muslim community rep-
resents a strikingly different
face of Islam than is seen on
the nightly news: one that is
peaceful and prayerful,” she
wrote.
The university says more
than 700 of its students are
Muslim, Schoenfeld said.
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The original plan drew
the ire of evangelist Franklin
Graham, who urged Duke
alumni to withhold support
because of violence against
Christians that he attributed
to Muslims. Schoenfeld said
emails and calls came from
alumni and others.
“There was considerable
AP Photo/Jonathan Drew
This Jan. 15 photo shows Duke Chapel in Durham,
N.C. On Thursday, just days after announcing that a
traditional Muslim call to prayer would echo from
the historic chapel tower, Duke University changed
course after being bombarded with calls and emails
objecting to the plan.
Church
Directory
Adams Community
Churc h
Duane Geyer, Pastor
Love Notes
Tell The World How You
to prayer would be read by
members of the Muslim Stu-
dents Association from the
tower for about three minutes
each Friday.
Michael
Schoenfeld,
Duke’s vice president for
public affairs and govern-
ment relations, said it would
be up to the students if they
want to use some sort of am-
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