GOALS OF THE MORMON ALLIANCE

The Mormon Alliance was organized on 4 July 1992 to counter spiritual and ecclesiastical abuse in the LDS Church and to protect the Church against defamatory actions. During the next few months, the trustees established a broad range of supporting purposes: providing a comprehensive definition of spiritual abuse, working to reconcile leaders and members who were out of harmony, establishing a Members’ Bill of Rights, providing a forum for a reasonable and tempered discussion of governance in the Church, critiquing general conference, and identifying and documenting cases of spiritual and ecclesiastical abuse. Janice Merrill Allred and Lavina Fielding Anderson, two of the trustees, became co-chairs of the Case Reports Committee in the fall of 1992 and served in those positions until December 2016.

Activities of the Alliance included publishing a quarterly newsletter, publishing an annual Case Reports volume, and sponsoring four quarterly meetings: in January, April, August, and October. The April and October meetings were scheduled for the first Monday after general conference and held a lively and far-ranging critique of the general conference just concluded. The August meeting were held in conjunction with Sunstone.

The purposes of the Alliance are defined as: to identify and document ecclesiastical/spiritual abuse, to promote healing and closure for its survivors, to build more sensitive leadership, to empower LDS members to participate with more authenticity in Mormonism, and to foster a healthier religious community.