Under the Banner of Heaven: a Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
London: Pan Books, 2004 (First Published 2003) ISBN 9780330419123
Probably a strange book to be reading over Easter, but none the less fascinating for that. I've been a fan of Krakauer's writing for a long time, and this book, which is both a history of Mormonism, an investigation of the fundamentalist mindset, and the story of a heinous murder, does nothing to alter my opinion of his writing.
Krakauer explains in an afterword to this edition that he initially set out to write a book about faith, and particularly of the Mormon faith, but the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her 15 month-old daughter by two of her brothers-in-law led him to write the current book. Ron Lafferty, who was condemned to death over the murder, had received a revelation that he needed to kill his sister-in-law, with his brother Dan actually wielding the blade that killed mother and child. The story of this crime is Krakauer's entree into the world of the Mormon faith.
Krakauer uses the story of the murders and the ensuing trial as the spine of a story that investigates how Mormonism developed, and how fundamentalist Mormonism grew from the unusual way that Mormon belief has developed and grown from the initial revelation of Joseph Smith Jr. Those that are not part of a religious movement always see the incongruities and absurdities that are inherent in any religion, for of course one needs faith to believe. What is interesting about Mormonism, as Krakauer points out, is that the religion was born and grew during the modern age, the age of the printing press, the telegram, and widespread literacy. This has meant that the early growing pains of the religion are on show for all to see. We know that the early Christian church was beset with heresies and conturbation, but much of the detail has disappeared, either destroyed by time, or suppressed by the victors.
Krakauer shows us that the current Mormon church wishes the same to happen today, with its vigorous suppression of dissenters within its ranks, attacking those who would question church doctrine and motives (as they have with this book - the edition I read has an appendix where Krakauer defends himself against criticism from the Mormon church. Krakauer is never one to shy away from an argument!), and hiding away evidence of less-than-perfect behaviour by its disciples.
And less-than-perfect behaviour flows through this book, staining the history of Mormonism with the blood of its followers, enemies, and innocents alike. Joseph Smith Jr. himself was an interesting character: by turns crystal gazer and seer, his big break came when he dug up the gold plates shown to him by the angel Moroni and transcribed the stories on them that then became the Book of Mormon. While there is no doubting Smith's charisma and strength of personality, he was not above deceiving people and bare-faced lying if that was what it took to advance his cause.
There are many differences between Mormonism and mainstream Christianity, and one of them is that Smith in his early days of being a Prophet let it be known that anyone could and should speak directly to God, and to allow him (God is definitely male in Mormonism) to talk directly to them. While this support of direct revelation certainly helped Mormonism grow quickly (as did the fact that the Book of Mormon showed America as the home of faith - this is truly an American religion), it created a bit of an organisational and authoritarian problem - if everyone can hear directly from God, how can there be one leader?
This problem is the reason why Mormonism has become so very schismatic, with breakaway churches proliferating over the years, sometimes due to doctrinal differences, but also - it seems from Krakauer's book anyway - due to personality clashes. One doctrine in particular has caused the Church much grief over the years, and was directly responsible for the murder of Brenda and her child: polygamy, or, as the Mormons have preferred to call it over the years, plural marriage.
This principle, revealed to Joseph Smith in the 1830s by revelation, has been the cause of much trouble within the Mormon church, and between the church and "gentile" society and government. It certainly seems, to an outsider, that Smith's revelation was very convenient, as he was a man who enjoyed the company of young women, and justified this enjoyment via his position of power within the church. The fact that he didn't publicly reveal the revelation until at least eight years after he started taking plural wives says a lot about just how controversial a doctrine it was. After Smith's murder in Illinois, the church was split apart by this issue. The mainstream church went down the polygamous route, with Brigham Young being a fervent supporter of the practice.
Obviously these ideas brought the Mormons into conflict with the rest of the United States, and even though their "exodus" into Utah bought them some freedom, it was only a matter of time before the US Government came and began a crackdown on such practices and in 1890 the then president of the church proclaimed a manifesto that required Mormons to comply with US law on marriage (although it seems that secretly some Mormons continued to take multiple wives).
For many Mormon fundamentalists, it is this manifesto that draws them away from the official church. What was given to Joseph Smith as a revelation from God could surely not be taken away merely because some earth-bound government said so. Or so the thinking goes. Which brings us back to the Lafferty brothers. The product of a strict but orthodox Mormon upbringing, the Lafferty brothers began to move in heterodox circles, and through their own study of Mormon doctrine and history, came to the conclusion that the current mainstream Mormon church was heading down the wrong path, and that the older strictures of Smith, including polygamy, were required to be lived out here on earth if one was to be truly among the saved. The Lafferty brothers formed a prayer circle, and were much influenced by another Mormon outcast "the Prophet Onias" (Robert Crossfield), who taught them how to receive revelations from God. Brenda Lafferty, wife of Ron and Dan's younger brother Allen, was having none of it, and was a forceful advocate within the family and especially with Allen for more orthodox thinking. Unlike the wives of the other brothers, Brenda had a good Mormon education, and could argue scripture with the men. Thus we come to Ron's revelation that both Brenda and her child were to be "removed", along with other people who had annoyed Ron (It is interesting that many of the revelations that we read about in this book just happen to solve problems for the people who receive them).
There is much bloodshed described in this book, from the Mountain Meadows massacre, to the work of Porter Rockwell, the Mormon "avenging angel" who murdered those seen as inimical to the faith, to the idea of "blood atonement" which gathered strength within the Mormon religion after the murder of Smith. In many ways it is not a pretty story, and yet Krakauer reminds us that the vast majority of Mormons are hard-working, clean-living family people. Like all faith traditions, there is light and darkness within.
Krakauer has a wonderful knack (driven no doubt by many hours of thinking and drafting) of creating a story from many threads that flows cleverly together: the history enlightens the current time, the investigations of the sects reveals the meaning behind the murders, and we the reader are carried on a flow of words into (what for me was) a different world. There is much more to this book than I have described here. It's well worth reading.
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