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Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith | 
 enlarge | Author: Jon Krakauer
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  710 reviews
Sales Rank: 764
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1400032806
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.33
EAN: 9781400032808
ASIN: 1400032806
Publication Date: June 8, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
In 1984, Ron and Dan Lafferty murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother Allen. The crimes were noteworthy not merely for their brutality but for the brothers' claim that they were acting on direct orders from God. In Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer tells the story of the killers and their crime but also explores the shadowy world of Mormon fundamentalism from which the two emerged. The Mormon Church was founded, in part, on the idea that true believers could speak directly with God. But while the mainstream church attempted to be more palatable to the general public by rejecting the controversial tenet of polygamy, fundamentalist splinter groups saw this as apostasy and took to the hills to live what they believed to be a righteous life. When their beliefs are challenged or their patriarchal, cult-like order defied, these still-active groups, according to Krakauer, are capable of fighting back with tremendous violence. While Krakauer's research into the history of the church is admirably extensive, the real power of the book comes from present-day information, notably jailhouse interviews with Dan Lafferty. Far from being the brooding maniac one might expect, Lafferty is chillingly coherent, still insisting that his motive was merely to obey God's command. Krakauer's accounts of the actual murders are graphic and disturbing, but such detail makes the brothers' claim of divine instruction all the more horrifying. In an age where Westerners have trouble comprehending what drives Islamic fundamentalists to kill, Jon Krakauer advises us to look within America's own borders. --John Moe
Product Description
Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. He now shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders, taking readers inside isolated American communities where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.
At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.
Download Description
JON KRAKAUER is the author of Eiger Dreams, Into the Wild, and Into Thin Air, and is editor of the Modern Library Exploration series.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 705 more reviews...
 GREAT BUSINESS EXPERIENCE August 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I received the book in just a few days and it was in great shape! I would definitely do business with this seller again!
Interesting read August 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a very easy and very informative read. I know there is always two sides to every story but I have been always curious about the Mormon religion. I felt this book would give more information on the controversial side of plural marriage. This book was almost like reading a long article from a newspaper. I felt that the writer used a lot of facts, tried to give as many sides to the same story and gave complete backgrounds so, the reader felt well educated on the information given. Very well done.
Charles Manson vs. the Lafferty brothers; cut from the same cloth July 31, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Both cowards, psychos, willing and able to kill innocent women and babies/children in the most violent way possible. Both believing that they got direct revelation from God to kill. I read the book; I agree with most of what I've read thus far; I'm not going to waste bandwidth repeating the same thing. I am po'd right now that a 24 year-old wife and mother and a 15 month old baby got their life snuffed out by cowardly weasels who were afraid of a young woman and a dear innocent baby. Death is too good for these murderers. The most heinous form of torture is too easy/good for them. Beating them to a pulp, electrocuting them - just a few degrees from death is what's appropriate here. The trouble is that they'd find reason to like it and would attribute their pain and suffering to God's revelation or something. Living in the gutter eating trash out of dumpsters would be 100% better than living with these types of psycho cowards.
Good Primer on Mormonism and Fundamentalism July 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Any time a book is written on the subject of religion, controversy is bound to ensue. Extend the subject to religious extremism and/or fundamentalism and you can ratchet it up a notch. When the book is written by a "non-believer", you can bet that it will come under vicious attack by proponents of the religion in question. Such is the case with Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer's expose on Mormonism and Mormon fundamentalism.
I read Krakauer's Into Thin Air and was riveted by his writing on the subject of Mt. Everest. I would not place this work in that category, but found it be a very instructive primer on the origins and background of the Mormon religion and its various fundamentalist offshoots.
The book essentially tells two stories, the threads of which alternate throughout the book. In one thread, Krakauer tells the story of Joseph Smith, the founding of the Mormon religion and its evolution to the present day. In the other thread, he explores the various fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism through the prism of a vicious double murder committed by a pair of its proponents.
It is difficult to argue with most of the facts presented in relation to the founding and evolution of Mormonism. As Krakauer points out, it is a religion of such recent vintage that the historical record is quite clear. He does make a few assumptions and extensions which have earned him the ire of the official church. In those cases, however, he states his grounds for doing so quite well. It is doubtful that anyone except a true believer in Mormonism would ever write a history to the liking of the church.
The beliefs and practices of some of the fundamentalists profiled in the book are scary in their level of extremism, however, they take their beliefs directly from the pages of Joseph Smith, the founder of the religion. Polygamy, or plural marriage, was one of the chief tenets of his church, and one that was stubbornly clung to for many years by the leaders of the church. It can hardly be argued that many heinous instances of statutory rape and sexual child abuse have resulted and continue to occur.
While Mormonism has come under attack throughout its history, both for some of its practices and the highly dubious circumstances surrounding its founding (Joseph Smith was likely no more than a charlatan and a fraud who concocted a religion that guaranteed him access to a never ending cache of nubile virgins), very few of the world's religions have better legs to stand on. Old Testament Christianity is filled with barbarous practices and outlandish fables (Noah's Ark, parting the Red Sea, burning bushes). Islam, ditto. I'm not even going to mention Scientology.
So, before anyone tears off on a rant concerning Mormonism, just make sure your own house is in order. If you want a quick and dirty outline on Mormon beliefs and foundations, this is a good place to start. If you want a good example of the effects of extremism (not limited to Mormonism) this is also a good example.
Just chilling! July 22, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Never before have I had to actually turn my eyes from the page because the text/truth was too horrific to read. This book takes you into the lives of the FDLS. It should scare the bejeezus out of anyone that this sort of thing is going on right here in our country. Not to mention the predicted effect the FDLS may have on the way our country is run in under a century.
I found the book to be a fasinating read and eye opening experience.
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