I honestly don’t remember how this landed on my TBR. I read a Krakaur book back in high school so it’s been ages. I picked this up just because it was already on the list and I’m pretty rigorous about following my TBR in order and it was time. What a pleasant surprise.
Cover Image via Amazon
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakaur
Summary from Amazon:
Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this “divinely inspired” crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy off-shoot of America’s fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.
I won’t lie, the scenes about the murder were hard to read. It was very detailed in the description and the brutality of it was jarring. That aside, the rest of the book was fascinating if not sad and at times disturbing. I’ll admit I knew very little about the Mormon religion and Joseph Smith. I knew it was somehow tied to polygamy but didn’t understand the history involved there and what the current status now was. I learned a lot in this book about the current LDS church and the offshoot sects that exist and Krakaur did a great job of not making it feel like a history lesson while teaching me so much. His research and interviews intertwined well into the complicated history behind such a atrocity.
Krakaur’s descriptions of the Lafferty family is both hard to read and yet feels very true. A family with convictions and who engages in such myopic groupthink isn’t hard to imagine. It’s the ideas they discuss and decisions they come to that are so baffling. The book lets us see what that can turn into over generations when we dive into the fundamentalist communities Krakaur describes and the results are quite chilling to an outsider.
DeLoy Bateman was one of the most interesting people in the book for me. He was a fundamentalist who lost his faith in the church and God but is struggling with leaving the church because of how much of his history and family is rooted in it. I thought that was a really interesting jorney to be on and I appreciated how honest he was with Krakaur about it. The family and property issues he was having as a result were groundshaking. It took a lot of nerve and heart to make the decision he did and I appreciated him telling his story.
There were parts of this book that surprised me. I grew up with a church community, but a rather mild one compared to many. Most of the views of my church aligned with mainstream America and weren’t in opposition to laws in the country. So hearing about such a large group of Christians who had such different beliefs was a bit surprising. I remember feeling something similar when I was in high school and went to church with a friend of mine from a different branch of Christianity. It was shocking to me how different it was from mine, yet we were both Christians. I don’t think I’ll ever cease to be surprised how one fait can look so many different ways.
Jon Krakaur. Image via Wikipedia
The later chapters that questioned the line between insanity and religious belief were really fascinating to me. It’s a solid question and not one that’s easy to answer. If someone hears voices, they have a mental illness. But if it’s the voice of God, is it different? The commandments of Christian prophets in the past have run counter to society’s customs and laws. Should we be surprised if they would do that again with a new prophet? These questions really pushed the opinions I was drawing while reading the book. I had concluded that the Lafferty brothers were mentally ill or had been brainwashed in some sense, but when framed in the context of religion, it becomes a lot less clear if they were mentally fit. I still can’t get on board with a God that would want two people killed in that way so I know where I ultimately fall in my opinion.
The descriptions of the crime were really hard to read. I sped through the rest of the book, but those passages slowed me down and made me step away. Writing this is giving me enough of a reminder that’s making me uncomfortable that I’m going to stop at that and not go into more detail.
This book questions the nature of faith and religion. What folks will do if they agree or disagree with something is very different when it’s a matter of religion instead of something like science or history. I think the Moutain Meadows Massacre described in the book is a great example. If the crime was committed by a Native American tribe as the church claimed at the time, it was precieved as violent, immoral, and unjust. However, when the story becomes that God wanted those folks to be eradicated, it becomes a necessary act that’s Holy and justified. It’s interesting how such events are viewed retroactivly, even by those who committed them as described in the book.
Writer’s Takeaway: The first hand interviews in this book really make it flow. Using the accounts of peole who were affected by the systems and beliefs described helps hammer home the variety of opinions people can hold about a single thing. The writer could give his own opinion on the topics but as an outsider, that’s going to have a strong level of bias. Talking to LDS members and people who are related to or part of the communities covered was a great way of making it more multi-leveled.
Overall, I was hooked and really learned a lot from this book. Five out of Five Stars.
I debated a few time periods but ultimately decided that this book will count toward the 1980-1999 time period of the When Are You Reading? Challenge. I think I would have been justified to use the 1800-1899 time period as well since there was so much of the history of the Mormon Church included.
Until next time, write on.
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