Mormon "kicked out of heaven" for demanding equality

During the 2013 American Election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney shone the spotlight on Mormonism.

But for Kate Kelly, there was one glaring detail being overlooked.

"People are perennially fascinated with Mormonism because of its many quirks…but almost no stories I heard covered what I thought was a basic, fundamental and very politically relevant fact: which is the primary institution that Mitt Romney associates with fundamentally excludes women from all positions of power and authority."

Kelly, who was born and raised Mormon, decided to take action. She started Ordain Women, a group that campaigns for equality within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spearheads the movement for Mormon women to become priests.

Kelly and hundreds of other Mormon women held rallies, marched on Temple Square (the epicentre of Mormonism) and they tried to be admitted into General Session, a meeting exclusively for male parishioners.

Through all these direct actions, Kelly was met with hostility and rejection from Mormon leadership.

"All of the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly oppression I had experienced as a Mormon woman was put into one instance where I said directly to a man, I looked him in the eyes and I said, 'I want to participate, I want to be let in,' and he said 'No you can't you're a woman.'"

After countless warnings, scoldings, and threats, a jury of three men ultimately excommunicated Kelly from the Mormon Church. She was charged with apostasy and actively undermining the Church's teachings, with the goal of swaying others to her cause.   

Kelly says excommunication is a violent and cold procedure that is tantamount to murder.

"For Mormons, you believe that you'll be with your family forever in heaven and if you're excommunicated, all of your ordinances are reversed - your baptism, your marriage, your sealing to your family. So those three men who decided to excommunicate me literally thought that they were kicking me out of heaven."

Although Kelly still believes in the Ordain Women movement and the importance of equality within the Church of Latter Day Saints, the agony and nightmare of her excommunication has caused her to give up on religion altogether.

"In order to go back to the Church I would have to be re-baptized and in order to be re-baptized I would have to - quote on quote - repent. What I've told them is 'You can't repent for telling the truth.' So even if I wanted to go back to the Church, I couldn't because I would have to take back what I had said and done, and I haven't done anything wrong."

Click LISTEN to hear Kate Kelly's arduous journey from Mormon missionary in Spain to excommunicated pariah at home.