What do You think about Under The Banner Of Heaven: A Story Of Violent Faith (2015)?
I don't know where to start with this book -- I couldn't put it down. It was enthralling. A quick note about Krakauer: this was the first book I've read by him and I was duly impressed with his story telling ability and his writing style. I will definitely add his other books to my reading list.Now for the book -- holy shit! Like most people I didn't know much about Mormons beyond the basics. And let it be known right off the bat that I am a devout athiest who thinks all religions are a load of bull. I can certainly understand after reading this book why the church thinks this book was a hatchet job on the religion. All that said, the LDS church is some scary shit. Certainly Krakauer doesn't mean to say that all Mormons are dangerous, pedophiles, rapists and killers -- just the fundamentalist ones (and history proves this point). When he asks one of the main subjects of the book, a man who is serving a life sentence for the brutal slayings of a woman and her 18-month old child, about comparisons to other fundamentalist groups and Osama bin Laden in particular -- the man claims the difference is that he is right. How's that for arrogance?Again, I think all religions are crap, but Mormonism was basically a nutty story pulled out of Joseph Smith's ass less than 200 year's ago. Krakauer does a great job of weaving the story of the beginnings of the LDS church with modern day stories of fundamentalism. It's easy to see why there are fundamentalist LDS sects today when you follow the history of the religion. I think what makes it so scary for me is the devotion to Smith and his ridiculous story told in the Book of Mormon that flies in the face of fact and common sense. Though the Mormon story is not much stranger than other major religious stories, it certainly is a stretch even by the standards of faith.But the book is not really about the mainstream LDS church and I certainly don't mean to ridicule these people (at least not any more than other religious people who deny history and scientific fact) -- the book really shows us about what happens when people follow a religion to its "logical" conculsion in an extreme sense. The fundamentalists differ from the mainstream in that they are so devout they take every word as truth and that means damn everyone else in the world -- literally. What makes the LDS fundamentalists so interesting to me is their devotion to one particular tenent of the religion -- plural marriage. The fundamentalists are so caught up in their "right" to have multiple wives that they are willing to die and kill for it. I personally think if you want more than one wife and you can get several women to agree -- good for you. Enjoy. Have a freakin orgy if you want. And that would be fine if not for one thing -- the men in this community do this by force and do it with underage women and in some cases their own daughters. That's criminal.Living so close to Colorado City means I get plenty of news about what's going on up there, and lately we've read a lot about Warren Jeffs who in my mind is a dangerous criminal. But at least now I have some context for why he and the other fundamentalists are how they are. Frankly, I think it's less about religion than it is about power and greed. Anyway, what an amazing book. Especially given the fact that some experts think the LDS religion will reach upwards of 300 million members by the end of this century and after almost 200 years of fighting the American government they are potentially one election away from assuming the ultimate power of having the U.S. presidency. Don't think Mitt Romney will let his religion influence his decision-making? Just see George W. Bush for precedent. Not much difference in my mind between LDS fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism. Not to say Mitt is a fundamentalist -- but what do we really know about his devotion to Joseph Smith's crazy story of the coming of the end of times?
—Len
My father's family is obsessed with Mormons, I think it's fair to say. Well..not Mormons. Most of the Mormons I've known have been perfectly regular people. If you're Mormon, please forgive me if that sounds callous. We are, however, obsessed with Mormonism, and have been since my aunt and uncle took a trip to Salt Lake City many years ago and came back with something we call "The Mormon Movie"."The Mormon Movie" is like the axis point of a fascination that's gone on for years and is easy to explain: we're Lutherans. As Lutheran, in fact, as they come. My grandfather co-founded the church my parents grew up in, and my dad and uncle were both pastors as younger men. My mom's family went to that Lutheran church, too, her mother was the choir director. The story goes on. So for us, the stories of rites and rituals, of Jesus visiting the Americas, of holy underwear, of plural marriage, almost seemed too fantastical to be true. Despite the inaccuracies of some of our perceptions of the LDS, this curiousity definitely added to my interest and enjoyment of this book, which is not so much a criticism of the Mormon Church as a look into how its history led to some very gruesome murders. LDS, of course, was not too thrilled with it, but I thought the book does a pretty evenhanded job of presenting facts more than opinions. I read it for my father's book club, and we had a debate about how fair he was being. But we also argued about how valuable participation in a religious institution is in the first place, or how corrupting it can be (I should add that the murderers in this book were part of a few different sects of Mormonism that were NOT part of the LDS). At any rate, it made us think and debate a lot, and it made us angry. That alone, I think, is a good reason to pick this one up.
—Marissa
Leave it to me to avoid a bandwagon (see: "Arrested Development") and finally opt to read this heralded book about Mormon killers while on vacation. Shew.And by Mormon killers I do mean both people who kill Mormons and Mormons who kill (kill "Gentiles" [anyone not Mormon, including Jews] and kill their own). The book is timely in that Mormon fundamentalists recently sprang into the news again, though hardly by their own desire, with the Texas polygamist colony fiasco in which lachrymose children were stripped from their "Little House on the Prairie" dress-wearing mothers and placed with protective services. That intrusion's since been ruled unlawful, and the children were even returned to the compound, to their families.It surely bears noting that this book centers on the killing of a mainline Mormon mother and her infant daughter by fundie Mormons, her estranged husband and brother-in-law. In adopting this thread throughout the book, Krakauer (the uber-successful magazine scribe of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air fame) frames it much like In Cold Blood, Capote's groundbreaking, timeless work. Indeed, it appears more and more as the book progresses that, when he's not content to simply play a prof of Mormon history for a chapter or two, Krakauer's eager to make this read his best go at copping Capote.He largely succeeds. The book's a bit long at 360ish pages but shorter than, say, Devil in the White City, a book I kinda wanted to lump it in with. It's engrossing, immensely readable. The beliefs (of mainline Mormons and their fundie brethren, whether they acknowledge them or not), the histories (grislier than you could imagine, with the prophet Joseph Smith going out in an OK Corral-styled bloodbath in a jailhouse), and the personalities (of Smith, of Brigham Young, and of the everyday Mormons and splinter-group leaders encountered) are all larger than life. Even Elizabeth Smart and her kidnapper make it into the mix, though it seems a distracting digression every time Krakauer drums it up. (We can only assume he bothers due to the CNN familiarity factor.)If this is in fact "the one true entirely American religion," it's a fascinating one. Among the lighter beliefs is that Mormons don't drink coffee or take in caffeine. Then there's the timeline for the permissibility of polygamy (or "spiritual wifery," or "celestial marriage," or whatEVER), which is entirely debatable, depending on who you talk to. I grew so very angry at Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, particularly the former, for the obvious con men, hypocrites, and oft-deplorable husbands and human beings they were, this despite their undeniable charms and ways with words and movement building. (Sound like anyone in today's America?) That someone (Smith) can decry polygamy while at the same time ravishing 20- or even 15-year-old brides himself (up to 45 of them in all) is just something to mourn.Question: How does someone even maintain 45 relationships at once? How can you 45-time these girls? Sheesh.What's more, a lot of the family trees depicted here have inbred branches growing out of inbred branches. I can't emphasize enough how supremely screwed up it is, stepdaughters being taken by their stepfathers and so on. (But to be fair, this was also the century of stateside slavery perped by us Gentiles, although so many wives in this Mormon era could also be deemed slaves.) It's also a chore to follow some of Krakauer's pedigree delineations, reminds one of trying to keep straight all the real-life political characters in Woodward and Bernstein's riveting-and-then-dull All The President's Men.The story begins and ends with the tragic, disgusting deaths of a smart, strong-willed young woman and her daughter. The details of the murders are recounted in such a way that In Cold Blood didn't chill me, in ways that the sexual assault and killing of the girl Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones' first chapter didn't get to me. I could barely read the relevant sections of this book, wondered why Krakauer included them and wished he'd pull up the reins. But he was and is relentless with all that he does, and writes, and that will not change.A lot about even mainline Mormonism doesn't make sense to me, and seems hushed up so "Gentiles" won't trip over it, but the fact remains that, when you meet and know Mormons, you realize they are quite wonderful people. They do much for communities and are largely successful, driven, faithful people. (I mean, look at Mitt Romney.) It just so happens that most of the Mormons - mainliners and fundies both - met in this book are horrendous people, particularly Ron and Dan Lafferty. God bless Brenda and Erica Lafferty, their lives cut far too short by the most senseless reasoning.
—Jonathan
