"A Savage Misogyny"

Mormonism vs. feminism and the ERA

She was the church organist, teacher of a women's class, a devoted wife and the mother of four. Energetic, attractive and dutiful, Sonia Johnson, 43, seemed the very model of a modern Mormon matron. But she was also a militant lobbyist for the Equal Rights Amendment. Last week, apparently as a result, she found herself excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sterling Park, Va. She can still attend services, but can take no active part in the life of the congregation. More important, Mormons believe that if she does not repent and get rebaptized, she presumably will be eternally separated in the afterlife from her husband and children.

Excommunications do occur in many Mormon congregations, usually involving sexual misconduct or apostasy--and no publicity. The Mormons gave up polygamy in 1890, but though the church, for example, favors equal pay for equal work, it strongly opposes the ERA, fearing a threat to morality and family life. The church does not allow women in its priesthood (its term for all laymen eligible to hold office). The ruling against Johnson was issued after a closed-door hearing that made national headlines and TV. It was delivered by CIA Personnel Officer Jeffery Willis, her local bishop (a layman who serves as leader of individual Mormon congregations).

Because she was officially charged with spreading false doctrine and working against church leadership, Willis would not permit ERA to be mentioned at the trial nor allow any testimony about her work for it. The church, in fact, says that it does not mind that Johnson, a former college instructor with a Ph.D., lobbied for the amendment by testifying at a hearing of the U.S. Senate. Or that she once flamboyantly hired a plane to drag a MORMONS FOR ERA pennant over Salt Lake City during a Mormon Church meeting. It claims that she had accused the leadership of "savage misogyny." She explains that the phrase was directed only at Mormon culture in general. A fifth-generation Latter-day Saint, she intends to appeal Willis' punishment to higher church authorities. But, she said, "the church has given me a lot of joy in my life. You don't abandon a good friend just because he does something unethical." As for the ERA, she will go on fighting for it.

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