It appears that the LDS Church brands the scarlet letter A for apostasy on the chest of those guilty of apostasy in order to make their teachings appear dangerous to orthodox members of the Church. Despite all that, Janice continues to attend church in Provo, Utah. But this scarlet letter has affected her children, and not in a good way. Check out our conversation....

https://youtu.be/oq5UJdNf-rk

 

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Would Janice Come Back?
Interview

GT  00:37   Very good. I'm trying to think of who else in there. So Avraham, Maxine, both came back. Lavina applied and didn't [get accepted.] Have you ever applied to get back?

Janice  00:50   No, no, I won't.

GT  00:51   You won't? Why not?

Janice  00:55   Several reasons. One, I'll go through them. I can only think of three today. Sometimes I can think of—the most important one. First, in order to get back, again, I take the laws and regulations of the Church seriously. In order to get back, it's required to go back to the court that excommunicated you, and to look at what happened, and the applicant is required to repent of what they did. Now, repentance must be sincere. I don't believe I did anything wrong. Therefore, I cannot say I repent of what I did. So, I can't, in good conscience, apply for rebaptism, because that is the process. The second one is, through everything that happened in the process of my church discipline, it became very clear to me that the Church requires obedience to Church authorities. And they also require me to claim, to say, that I recognize the leaders of the Church as prophets, seers, and revelators. I do not recognize the leaders of the Church as prophets, seers and revelators.

GT  02:11   Oh, wow.

Janice  02:11   And I am not willing to submit to their authority. Therefore, although, I don't think the Church should require that, however, that's what they require. So, for that reason, I won't do it. The third reason is, it would be futile, since they rejected my dear friend, Lavina. Why would they accept me who has written many, many more things since then, which go farther, farther, farther from what I did at that time. So, it would be wrong and futile, and so I don't.

GT  02:50   So if your bishop came to you and said, "Janice, we want you back in Church." You'd say?

Janice  02:58   I'd say for these—it's interesting, because my bishop has never said that. One of the Relief Society presidents, who was a friend of mine, said to me, "You should reapply." I told her my reasons. She said she had talked to the bishop, and he said that he would be willing to go through the process. And I said, "No, it would not..." Again, it would not be fair to put people through this process, which I know is going to fail, and which I also know that I cannot maintain a willingness to have my speaking, writing, publishing, overseen by them.

GT  03:44   Well, because Maxine speaks at Sunstone now.

Janice  03:47   She does.

GT  03:48   So do you think that's still a condition?

Janice  03:51   Well, I don't think it was ever a condition. I don't know Maxine's history. Speaking at Sunstone, many Church members still do that.

GT  04:01   What I'm saying is, and I have to talk to her, so we'll get more of her story. But I would assume she probably had a similar prohibition: Don't speak.

Janice  04:14   No, as far as I know, and listening to Maxine, she was not active. She was not going to church at the time. She did not go to her court.

GT  04:26   Oh, when she was excommunicated?

Janice  04:28   Right. So I don't know what she was told. I mean, I don't know. And I doubt, again, I don't know for sure. I doubt if she made any contact with Church authorities for some time, for many years until she decided to...

GT  04:44   I know she became a priest in another gnostic religion or something.