Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

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A multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. This is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior. And then as I stood," he testified in court years later, "I surveyed the situation a little more, and realized that there had been a grim struggle." Brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty insist they were commanded to kill by God. Jon Krakauer‘s investigation into the murder of a mother and her child is a meticulously researched, bone-chilling narrative of polygamy, savage violence and unyielding faith. It’s an elegant and even topical adaptation that dares to ask big questions. What in this fallen world can make a believer doubt their faith? Should the godly render unto Caesar? Or should they hole up in a log cabin to do battle against his diabolical forces? Krakauer suggests that much of John Wesley Powell’s book, The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, particularly his account of his dealings with the Shivwit Indians, should be regarded with a “healthy dose of skepticism,” and that it embellishes and omits important facts [p. 245]. Is Krakauer himself a trustworthy guide to the events he describes in Under the Banner of Heaven? Are his writing and his judgments fair and reasonable? What makes them so?

this book is quite different from what i thought it would be. i was excepting ‘in cold blood’ true crime vibes, and that is present, but much of the book explores the history of a particular religion and how extreme religious belief can sometimes inspire violent actions.

The Killing of Brenda and Erica Lafferty

Is there anything inherently wrong with polygamy? Do we have a gene for monogomy? (I don't care, as long as no one gets hurt. And marrying 13 year olds, sometimes when they're your own daughter, is inherently hurtful.) Encouraged by Dan to take a more fundamentalist view of their faith, Ron wanted a polygamous marriage, and became abusive - he believed rules imposed by the government did not apply to Mormon men. He believed pious Mormon’s only lived by God’s law which was made clear to them in other ways. In July 1984, in a Utah town called American Fork, Dan Lafferty entered the home of his brother Allen, who was at work, and killed Allen's wife and 15-month-old daughter. Dan, now serving a life sentence, has no remorse about the murders and no trouble explaining them. His older brother, Ron, who assisted in the crime and is now on death row, had received a revelation from God mandating that Brenda and Erica Lafferty be ''removed'' so that, as God put it, ''my work might go forward.'' Brenda Lafferty, a spunky 24-year-old, had been bad-mouthing polygamy and in other ways impeding the fundamentalist mission that had seized Ron and Dan. Throughout Under the Banner of Heaven, Andrew Garfield’s fictional Detective Jeb Pyre is attempting to understand the motivations behind Brenda and her infant daughter Erica’s gruesome murders. He slowly understands the crimes to be based on rhetoric from the early days of Mormonism, a religion he has devoutly followed for his entire life. As Pyre speaks with the rest of the Lafferty brothers and understands the domestic violence, narcissistic delusions, and strict traditional upbringings of Dan and Ron, the detective realizes that Brenda and Erica were just the beginning of their path to disillusioned glory.

They are so different now," Allen told the news agency. "It's like they are possessed or something. I knew they were here [in town] and that their disposition had changed radically, but I couldn't anticipate anything like this happening." He hadn't seen either brother in three months. What about the beards, though? Are the killers wearing false ones to confound the hated cops, or are they a splinter group of fundamentalist Mormons who want to revert to ye olden bearded days of yore? I’m looking forward to finding out at the end of this six-part series. Through ‘Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?’ Pyre understands that his faith is built upon several unacceptable practices and startling historical events. The history of Mormonism, which includes the Mountain Meadows massacre, a mass murder committed by Mormons with the assistance of Southern Paiute Native Americans, astounds Pyre. The detective’s doubts and questions only increase after reading the book and he gets detached from his Mormon faith more than ever. After going through the book, Pyre suffers a breakdown as he perceives that he cannot believe in the LDS Church in the same way he used to. Image Credit: Michelle Faye/FX SINCE Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have talked a lot about the dark side of religion, but for the most part it isn't religion in America they've had in mind. Jon Krakauer wants to broaden their perspective. In ''Under the Banner of Heaven,'' he enters the obscure world of Mormon fundamentalism to tell a story of, as he puts it, ''faith-based violence.''Would all religions seem this crazy if we were only 200 years out, and had intimate, dirty details of each guru's life? Mormonism bases its legitimacy on the idea of continuing divine revelation. Where Christianity declares revelation ‘closed’ with the death of the Apostles, Mormons accept not only the writings of Joseph Smith to be divinely inspired, but also the possibility of direct revelation to any (male) member of the church. Inspiration is a part of being Mormon. Mormon fundamentalists aren't Mormons in the common sense of the word. They don't belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned the doctrine of ''plural marriage'' in 1890. Many live in small towns (the ''Taliban-like theocracies'') where men evade anti-bigamy laws by having one lawful wife and additional ''spiritual'' wives. Others -- especially ''independents,'' who belong to no particular fundamentalist sect -- just blend into the landscape. The street preacher who allegedly kidnapped 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart last year and forced her to ''marry'' him was an independent.

Pyre’s introduction to the fundamentalist dimension of Mormonism leads him to question his own faith. In the sixth episode, he reads a red book suggested by Allen while struggling with the loss of his faith. If you want to know more about the red book, let us be your ally! SPOILERS AHEAD.Her current whereabouts remain unknown, although it is widely speculated she remains in Florida. Is Robin Lafferty still alive? The book opens with news accounts of the 1984 murder of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter Erica. Brenda was married to Allen Lafferty, the youngest of the Lafferty brothers. His older brothers Dan and Ron disapproved of their sister-in-law Brenda because they believed she was the reason Dan's wife left him (after refusing to allow him to marry a plural/second wife—his stepdaughters). Both men's extremism reached new heights when they became members of the School of the Prophets, founded and led by Robert C. Crossfield. After joining this group, Ron claimed that God had sent him revelations about Brenda. Communication with God is a core belief of fundamentalist Mormonism, as well as the mainstream LDS Church. [1] Ron showed the members of the School of Prophets a written "removal revelation" that allegedly called for the killing of Brenda and her baby. After other members of the School failed to honor Ron's removal revelation, the brothers quit the School. When Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven was published in 2003, it juxtaposed this true crime with the early history of the Mormon church in the US, from the moment in 1823 when an angel directed Joseph Smith to a buried set of golden plates, which he translated into English – a text he never dreamed would be adapted as a hit musical, namely the Book of Mormon. Consequently Mormonism is even more fragmentary than Christianity. Not only are there a variety of formal sects, there are also an untold number of ‘independents’ who conduct their unique cults at effectively within their own households. One’s family gods in Shintoism naturally come to mind. Within the American legal system, such independents may claim religious affiliation and constitutional protection when convenient; and reject hierarchical supervision when not.

Edwards, Belen (May 14, 2022). "The top 10 most streamed TV shows of the week feature a lot of true crime". Mashable. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022 . Retrieved October 5, 2022. THE human mind is great at justifying its goals, and it does so by whatever medium is handy, including -- if neither god nor dog seems plausible -- simple moralizing. Dan Lafferty, asked to distinguish himself from Osama bin Laden, says, ''I believe I'm a good person.'' An unfortunately common sentiment. Krakauer writes that ''as a means of motivating people to be cruel or inhumane . . . there may be no more potent force than religion.'' But sheer instinctive self-righteousness may ultimately be a bigger part of the problem. It is a common denominator of crimes committed in the name of religion, nationalism, racism -- even, sometimes, nihilism. Which is a shame, because the modern scenes of characters torn between their faith and their morals could easily stand on their own. With his baby face and mostly smooth American accent, Garfield is more than convincing as a buttoned-up church guy fraying under the weight of cognitive dissonance – the gap between what he believes (that man is the authority of the household, that the church is the ultimate authority) and what he knows (that his wife is his equal, that Brenda and Erica deserve justice). Edgar-Jones, too, captures this – some form of unbreakable spirit – in her heartbreaking portrayal of Brenda, a faithful Mormon and nascent feminist. At its best, the series digs into the always fascinating and confusing tension between instinct and instruction – how people see right when they’re told wrong, how people feel pulled to the truth. How beliefs molt and mutate. When that question gets center stage, the show becomes something more than a competent if muddled entry into the dead girls oeuvre. An incisive look inside isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities in America, this gripping work of non-fiction illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behaviour. A friend of the brothers told UPI in the days following the killings that, barely two years beforehand, Ron and Dan had been "moral and sensitive men who were active in their Mormon faith," but had since splintered off into a fundamentalist sect that espoused plural marriage. (Unlike Dan, who had two wives, Ron later said he never actually practiced polygamy, and he denied belonging to any extremist group.)Krakauer asks: “if Ron Lafferty were deemed mentally ill because he obeyed the voice of God, isn’t everyone who believes in God and seeks guidance through prayer mentally ill as well?” [p. 297] Given the nature of, and motive for, the murders of Brenda Lafferty and her child, should Ron Lafferty be considered mentally ill? If so, should all others who “talk to God” or receive revelations—a central tenant of Mormonism—also be considered mentally ill? What would the legal ramifications be of such a shift in thought? Though he had two court-appointed lawyers, Dan insisted on defending himself. The trial lasted five days and after nine hours of deliberations, the jury found him guilty on both charges. But because only 10 out of 12 jurors voted to give him the death penalty and unanimity is required, he was sentenced to two life terms in the state penitentiary. I've seen, here in the West Indies, how a cult can gain both the practice and the legitimacy of an established religion within a few generations. There are two routes to this. The first is the government is willing to recognise it and allow it tax-exempt status in which case it becomes part of the establishment The second is that it becomes an issue of political-correctness and people and the media must appear to pay the cult at least the lip-service of respect whether or not it deserves it. I'm talking about Rastafarianism of course. And I've read it here in this book as a cult developed into what would become the FLDS (still a cult) and the mainstream Mormons. Much of Under the Banner of Heaven explores the tensions between freedom of religion and governmental authority. How should these tensions be resolved? How can the state allow religious freedom to those who place obedience to God’s will above obedience to secular laws?