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Buckley Jeppson and Jeff Nielsen Featured in “The Salt Lake Tribune” Jeppson: “I've spent 57 years in the church. I wasn't going to jump. It was a matter of conscience.” by Seba Martinez August 2006 Affirmation member Buckley Jeppson and philosophy instructor Jeff Nielsen were featured on August 13 in The Salt Lake Tribune. They were two of the speakers at the Sunstone Symposium held in Salt Lake City. Buckley Jeppson, who married Mike Kessler in Canada in 2004, was threatened with excommunication by his stake president Nolan Archibald earlier this year. "I felt I was on the edge of a cliff and he was saying 'jump or we'll push you,'" Jeppson said. "I've spent 57 years in the church. I wasn't going to jump. It was a matter of conscience." "I wasn't going to say to my family that all my years of service in the church meant nothing, that I no longer believed it," Jeppson added. "I was not making a big statement, not marching or protesting or anything. I just wanted to worship with my tribe every week." Jeff Nielsen is a former BYU philosophy instructor who was let go after publishing a courageous letter in The Salt Lake Tribune challenging the church's opposition to same-sex marriage. "Challenging the church's historical claims would be heresy and challenging its theology would be apostasy, but surely it's OK to challenge its politics, I thought." Nielsen says he received three types of e-mail responses to his letter: the first came from ex-Mormons cheering him on; the second from gays and lesbians sharing their own painful stories; and the third from "active Mormons who said they, too, were troubled by the church's position and were working quietly towards changing perceptions within the church." That's good news for the church, Nielsen said.
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www.affirmation.org