Personal Revelation: the potential for good and evil | Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith...

One-sided but interesting... | Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith | Jon Krakauer

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	• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith Jon Krakauer Anchor, 2004 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 727 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fascinating insight into American history.

This book was INCREDIBLE! It is my favorite Krakauer book. Not only does it describe the history of Mormonism so beautifully, it touches on themes that have been constant in so many other religions. Persecution allows for justification etc. It also raises the question: If you hear the voice of god does that make you crazy? READ THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE LEARNING!

Personal Revelation: the potential for good and evil

Under the Banner of Heaven is a very interesting and informative book. Parts of it are creepy, but overall I do not look at it as particularly anti-Mormon. It deals with some of the unfortunate bits in the history of the LDS, and with many of the unsavory current practices of the FLDS. My impression is that most religions (and governments) have these homicidal episodes in their pasts, and the LDS history is recent enough to be documented. Note that all the really nasty stuff attributed to the LDS in this book were before 1890, the Mormons as a group were certainly provoked. The Fundamentalist LDS, on the other hand, come off as seriously scary dudes. Others have discussed this topics ad nauseum. I would like to bring up two newer points.

Personal revelation plays an important role in the narrative and by implication in the FLDS church. Krakauer nicely points out the problem with ongoing personal revelation: who gets to decide what is valid? It clearly leads to schisms. I am interested in the topic because personal revelation can be found in other Christian denominations, including the one with which I am aligned. The story of the Lafferty boys is a scary cautionary tale about how to analyze personal revelation--when should one take it seriously and when should it be dismissed as lunacy. The book implies that there is serious wish fulfillment going on with some personal revelation. Discernment is the catch phrase I hear bandied about, but perhaps the more obvious filter is "who will be hurt?" In one of the quotes, William James suggests that a religion without ongoing revelation is a dead religion. The corollary is that religion with ongoing revelation is powerful and scary and the practitioners need to be concerned with the potential for evil.

I have not read much about Joseph Smith previous to this book. He is a very impressive man. He grew up poor but was very intelligent, hard working and had charisma in spades. He was certainly a self-made man and one of the great leaders of the 19th century. He was a polarizing figure that people loved or hated. He had a weakness for women. Ultimately, his enemies cornered him and lynched him. Given the current significance of his Latter Day Saints Church, he was one of the most important Americans to ever live. The parallels to a contemporary figure in America are striking. Who? Why Bill Clinton of course!

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One-sided but interesting...

I read this book when I was still a member of the LDS Church and although it did not make me leave this religion, it made me question what I believed. Now that I have a more neutral viewpoint, I feel that this book is very interesting from a historical/true-crime perspective, but it does not really give both sides of the story. I don't think Krakauer intended to smear the LDS Church with this book, but he kind of did anyway. This of course angered many of the Mormons around me, but a little criticism isn't bad so I think Mormons should just take this in stride and get over it. However, in the future, Krakauer should investigate multiple sides for the stories he writes to ensure more accuracy.

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An American Religion Exposed

Krakauer delivers a great snapshot of Mormon life. Under the Banner of Heaven chronicles the dual murders committed by Ron and Dan Lafferty of their sister-in-law and her infant daughter, claiming God divinely inspired them to carry out these brutal slayings. The book not only looks at the brothers' lives and how they came into Mormon Fundamentalism, but also the history of the Mormon Church in America. Beginning with Joseph Smith and his prophesies, it follows the formation and migration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their establishment in Utah. There are also detailed accounts of how fundamental branches have tried to keep polygamy alive in remote corners of the country. The plot often gets bogged down with names, both in Mormon history and in polygamous family trees, but that's just the details of the story, not Krakauer's writing. I feel like I got a great American history lesson, because Mormonism is truly an American religion that often escapes history books. I was not aware until reading Banner the influence Mormons had in shaping the American west. Stories of persecution and betrayal litter the Mormon history, but ultimately the story is about Fundamentalism and its effects on the Lafferty brothers, their actions, and their justification of their crime. Should religious beliefs and communication with God be considered insanity? If so, wouldn't everyone with any religious beliefs be considered insane? Draw what conclusions you want, but the cases of Ron and Dan Lafferty are shocking to the core. I enjoyed this book, its history, and the questions it raised about religion and fundamentalism.

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The perils of extreme faith

Recently, the Mormon faith has been spotlighted a bit in the media, the result of the ill-fated presidential campaign of Mitt Romney. Romney's run for high office was derailed for a number of reasons and certainly his faith didn't help. Mormonism is the most popular faith that is native to the United States, but it is regarded with suspicion, particularly by Christians. Despite being reasonably objective - and often praising the Mormon faith - Jon Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven is not likely to win many converts to the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Superficially, this is a true crime book, focusing on the brutal murders of Brenda Lafferty and her baby daughter Erica at the hands of her brothers-in-law Ron and Dan. Followers of a fundamentalist branch of Mormonism, Ron and Dan felt they were on a mission from God when they killed the pair: Brenda had the gall to speak out against their beliefs in polygamy, the complete subjugation of their wives and daughters and their tolerance of domestic violence.

To understand the behavior of Ron and Dan Lafferty, Krakauer gives a history of Mormonism that understandably is not one the modern Mormon church likes. Joseph Smith - the religion's founder - is portrayed as a con man who seemed mostly interested in polygamy to justify his roving eye (and despite his many wives, he'd still patronize prostitutes). Brigham Young, Smith's successor, comes off even worse with his implicit involvement in the Mountain Meadow Massacre which resulted in the murders of over 120 people.

Despite his flaws, Smith was also brilliant and charismatic, and with his death, the Mormons would break into schisms (like in many dictatorships or oligarchies - which is how the faith is structured - chaos and civil wars can result when a leader dies). Although the bulk of the Mormons would follow Young, others wouldn't and other splits would occur at decisive times such as when the Mormons ended polygamy. The result would be deeply fundamentalist sects that would dwell in isolated communities and indulge in not only polygamy but the forcible marriage of girls in their early teens. Indeed, most of the women in this book seem to be victims, cowed into multiple marriages because they never have any alternatives (no real education and raised in a closed environment which allowed no non-Mormon media); on the other hand, the few heroes in this book are also all women, though some, like Brenda, would be killed or hurt for their resistance (even Brenda's husband, Allen, comes off as bad, both abusive and unwilling to warn his wife she could be a target for murder).

Though Krakauer makes a distinction between mainstream Mormons and the fundamentalists, even the mainstream comes off somewhat unfavorably. The book, however, is not really anti-Mormon; instead, it is anti-religious extremism. Although the Latter Day Saints are the center of this book, the extreme behavior can be found in other faiths: although Islam seems to get the most press (because of 9/11 in particular), Christianity and other faiths also bear the onus of their most fanatical members.

For those familiar with the HBO show Big Love, much of what is in Under the Banner of Heaven will seem recognizable, though the book makes the TV show seem tame in comparison. Krakauer's book is disturbing and highly informative; more importantly, it is an engrossing page-turner. To understand the dangers of religious extremism - and no matter the faith, it is always bad news - this is a must-read.

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