The Sacrament of Doubt

Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2007. First Edition. 160pp. Duodecimo [21 cm] Gray cloth with the title in black on the backstrip. Fine/Fine. Paul James Toscano was a member of the 'September Six' and a Salt Lake City based attorney, who in this book of essays embraces his doubts and examines his faith in the aftermath of his own excommunication. Toscano also celebrates LDS founder Joseph Smith's awe-inspired view of the universe. Paul Toscano was excommunicated from the LDS Church on September 19, 1993. The reasons for his excommunication, as reportedly given by church leaders, were apostasy and false teaching. According to Toscano, the actual reason was insubordination in refusing to curb his sharp criticism of Church leaders' preference for legalism, ecclesiastical tyranny, white-washed Mormon history, and hierarchical authoritarianism, which privilege the image of the corporate church above its commitment to its members, to the teachings and the revelations of founder Joseph Smith, and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.