Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

The book uses the horrific acts of the Lafferty brothers as a jumping point to explore Mormon fundamentalism. It does talk about mainstream Mormon church but only in so far as it interacts with the various fundamentalist sects. I was looking more for an account of how a religion that was (almost literally) pulled out of a hat by a certain Joseph Smith less than 200 years ago can grow enough in political clout/mainstream acceptance to put a candidate within striking distance of the white house. This isn't the ideal book for that but I thoroughly enjoyed the parts of Mormon history that the book does cover - the inception of the church under the charismatic Joseph Smith and its consolidation into an abiding entity that survived multiple show more attempts to stomp it out by a determined federal government under the ruthless Brigham Young. Fresh off my reading of the history of Scientology, I could discern many parallels between the two religions - the charisma of their founders, how they shaped their respective religions to mask their personal insecurities and endorse their vices as virtues, how just the right leader (Brigham Young for Mormonism, David Miscavige for Scientology) took over the reins when the honeymoon phase was over and a ruthless hand was needed to quell any threats to the religion from both within and without, how quickly the founders are beatified and just how quickly the fairly incredulous founding mythologies are embraced as holy truths. Will America (almost) elect a Scientologist as president in another 80 years? Disturbingly enough, "Going Clear" makes a mention of Tom Cruise expressing precisely this desire to David Miscavige - when I read it, I thought it was a pipe dream. Now, I am not so sure. show less

A really fascinating story. Although the narrative is focused on fundamental Mormonism, much of this book strikes shockingly close to what it is to be American. The bravado and charm of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young's unflinching and tenacious belief that his doctrine was right. The sort of grim optimism of a people who look forward to the day that what they know to be true is confirmed, woe to those who didn't believe. It can all be reinterpreted shades of Manifest Destiny and the making of America. Of course there are major diversions: plural marriage, child abuse, rape, religious extremism, and a terrible and shocking murder. But the strength of Krakauer's writing lies in his ability to relay sensational information, without show more sensationalizing the narrative. show less

Driving along the freeway we are hard pressed not to crane at the accident on the shoulder. How bad is the car crumpled up? Is anyone still inside? Is that blood on the pavement? Something about other's pain draws us in; it demands our attention. Several times, reading Jon Krakauer's historical treatise on the violence of the early Latter Day Saints religion and its modern fundamentalist schisms, I felt like I was driving down that freeway, unable to turn away in the face of awful stories and eager to turn the page.

Krakauer's examination is centered around the murder of a young mother, Brenda Lafferty, and her two year old daughter. She was murdered by two of her brothers-in-law, Ron and Dan Lafferty, because she dared to stand up to show more them in the face of their demands for polygamous marriages. Brenda counseled and comforted one of Ron's wives, encouraging her to leave, though she refused to leave her own husband, even in the face of severely abusive behavior. After Ron's wife left him, he decompensated, falling further and further into fundamental LDS dogma. Eventually, Ron convinced himself that he had received a revelation from God directing him to kill Brenda and others who he felt responsible for his wife's departure. Using the Lafferty story as a foundation, Krakauer examines the birth of the LDS religion and its violent adolescence. There seems to be pain and death at every turn in the story. And yet, there remains ruggedly faithful people, committed to the genuine tenets of the faith.

I have studied the LDS faith on my own and have rarely found such a comprehensive and detailed account of its foundation and growth. The detail in the book is a testament both to Krakauer's research and to his ability to connect and communicate with people from a faith who are typically shy and reticent. The latter is especially true of the fundamentalist sects hiding in out of the way places so that they might practice plural marriage. It is in the book's exhaustive detail that I find my primary critique. Sometimes the pace and the narrative were lost in Krakauer's need to follow every rabbit trail and every familial connection. I understood his reason for laying out things so meticulously but found myself growing weary when I was faced with 8 or 10 pages about another offshoot of another family who was also part of another piece of brutal history.

While I am not a Mormon, I found Krakauer's book to be mostly fair. He points out that the LDS faith is not alone in its violent history; many other faiths have emerged in or suffered through periods of violent upheaval. And many faiths have given rise to fanaticism. This is merely a function of human weakness and not necessarily evidence of religious impurity. Krakauer hoped to come closer to grasping the nature of religious belief in examining the LDS faith. In his notes at the end of the book, he admits that he was not musch closer to understanding for the experience. Perhaps the reason lies in the natrue of faith itself. It is not something to be researched and described and understood; it is something for inner reflection.

Nonetheless, Krakauer is able to grasp and describe human nature in the context of religious fanaticsim, individual narcissism, and criminal behavior. For me, this was the value of the book - the reason I wanted to keep turning the page. show less

“I was doing God’s will, which is not a crime.”

This book is part history of the Mormon church and part murder investigation. The first part was interesting, and really revealing about the origins of the LDS church. The second part, the horrible murders committed by Dan Lafferty, a Mormon Fundamentalist, are a terrifying look into the power of religious belief. A woman and her child are murdered because God told a man to do it. And he did.

“Saying that anyone who talks to God is crazy has enormous implications for the whole world of religion. It imposes a secular view of sanity and means that all religions are insane.” My thoughts exactly!

“…If Ron Lafferty were deemed mentally ill because he obeyed the voice of God, isn’t show more everyone who believes in God and seeks guidance through prayer mentally ill as well?”

And I wonder what the difference between him and the biblical Abraham is? Abraham is a revered 'father' of the Bible for following God's command to kill. Lafferty is in prison for life. One a hero, one a criminal - both believing they were following God's divine will. Was Abraham actually mentally ill, or should Dan and Ron be revered too? Me, I think anyone who kills women and children, or attempts too, are insane. From Abraham on down. show less

Krakauer explores the polygamist culture of Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, through the lens of a murder by two brothers of another brother's wife. The murderers claim they were led to their actions by God. Krakauer points out the danger of a religion that recognizes and encourages each individual to develop his (or her) own divine inspirations. He traces the origin of the violence and misogynism of the Fundamentalist to the very roots of Mormonism, and even, less directly, to religion itself.

Krakauer's exploration of the history of the Latter Day Saints takes up so much of the book that for a while you lose sight of the original murder that starts off the book, but it is thorough and fascinating. Somehow the intertwined history of show more families and settlements begins to make sense, and is actually needed to begin to comprehend the horror of the Lafferty brothers' actions.

I learned a lot about Mormonism, which is one of the fastest-growing religions in the world. It was worth the read for that in itself. show less

I think one could be forgiven for assuming, after even only a brief survey, that the primary purpose of religion is to keep women in their place. You would be wrong, of course. Women just aren't that important. The primary purpose of any given religion is to inculcate children into that religion. Some of those children will turn into women and if you inculcate them well enough, they'll keep themselves in their place.
Maybe I'm being unfair. The polygamist practices of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, and of the many other Mormon spin-off sects who also practice plural marriage, are enough to turn you off religion for life, and possibly humanity in general if you're having a really bad day. The mainstream LDS Church, of show more course, has turned away from polygamy, it being illegal and more trouble than it's worth. Committed polygamists, however, appear to believe that it's a sacrament and commandment so fundamental and important to their faith that they hive off to their own communities and risk arrest for the right to marry, for example, their own 14 year-old step-daughter, or, only slightly less skin-crawlingly, hive their 14 year-old daughters and step-daughters off to be married to other polygamists. If the daughters don't, they will, of course, suffer eternal damnation.
This is one of the religious issues which forms part of the backdrop to the appalling double-murders of a mother and her infant daughter in the Summer of 1984 in Utah by Dan and Ron Lafferty. God told them to do it. They're both in prison now, Dan for life and Ron under sentence of death, protracted for decades on appeal. Neither of them are particularly sorry for their crime. They don't even regard it as a crime. God told them to do it, directly and personally, and they thought long and hard about it before concluding that they'd better get on with it or risk angering God.
Krakauer traces the story of the Lafferty brothers and what led them to commit divinely inspired homicide, tracing the roots of their beliefs through the history of the founding of Mormonism by Joseph Smith and the peculiarly bloody and violent rise of what is now one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Persecution, exile, murder and massacre follow the Saints on their trek across America, inflicted on them and perpetrated by them.
It's a compelling, sobering narrative, and though it examines some incidents in a certain amount of detail, in some ways this serves best as a survey for those unfamiliar with the history of Mormonism. Fellow Irish Catholics will not be surprised to discover that the darkest side of religion is, as always, not the dreadful and violent actions of extremist believers, but the systematic and widespread corruption, abuse and repression of the young and the innocent. show less

A true-crime story juxtaposed with the genesis tale of mormonism. We trace the motivations for a bizarre, religiously-motivated double murder through the weaving genealogies of several fundamentalist mormon sects, all the way back to joseph smith. The goal is to use the case study to shed light on some "big questions". Is this murder a reflection of a "violent faith"? Does this say anything about faith in general?

Ultimately, I'm not convinced that these specific crimes say much of anything general about the "religious impulse". The "big questions", although thought-provoking, always seemed a bit of an afterthought. It also doesn't really matter. The details drive the book. I enjoyed almost every second of both the true-crime and show more historical narratives. show less