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 enlarge | Manufacturer: Anchor
Category: EBooks
List Price: $9.95
Buy New: $7.96
You Save: $1.99 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  730 reviews
Sales Rank: 384
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.33
ASIN: B000FC1R2S
Publication Date: June 8, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Childish examination August 19, 2008
3 out of 15 found this review helpful
The first half of the book discusses the personal lives of a couple psychotic men who happened to be Fundamentalist Mormons, to prove that the LDS religion breeds molesters.
If that is true, then we can easily conclude that the Catholic religion breeds pedophiles.
The author grossly misrepresents the theology of Mormonism, claiming that Lehi, the ancient Hebrew, discovered that we must "EARN GOD'S LOVE" through obedience. Mormons do not believe such drivel.
Through obedience, one pleases God and "earns" His approval, but not His acceptance and love.
Krakuer takes a different direction August 18, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I truly enjoyed Into Thin Air. Under the Banner of Heaven was completely different subject matter. I found this no less engaging, Krakuer again draws you in with nothing more than what it is, a great story needing to be told.
 An Exciting but Ultimately Disappointing Read August 16, 2008
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book was thrilling and engrossing to read, but at the same time I didn't like it.
Let me explain. It was a fascinating book, but there's a strong undercurrent of condescension in Krakauer's tone -- there are little asides that imply (or state right out) that religious people are just plain crazy, and that this (the murders that are the focal point of the book) was just the natural course that religion -- all religion -- takes.
He's an outsider, yes, and that fact alone doesn't mean he can't write about the FLDS, but he scrutinizes his subjects in a way he fails to scrutinize himself, and in sensationalizing the FLDS he treats them as not quite human. It's like he's an old-school British explorer venturing into the quaint little village of some savage tribe.
It's not that I don't have problems myself with the FLDS, but Krakauer can't seem to separate the people he writes about -- several of whom are deeply disturbed -- from the concept of religious faith.
Ultimately, it's an interesting and indulgent read, but just remember to take Krakauer's slant and commentary with a grain of salt.
 Enlightening and a great read! August 16, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am of Mormon heritage and no longer belong to that church. This book was extremely enlightening, well-written, and answered a lot of questions I have had.
Religion Gone Too Far August 13, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
I read this book in shock and awe BEFORE the news of the raid on the YFZ ranch in Texas. At times it was tough reading because I found myself being heartsick and angry that such atrocities are condoned in the United States today.
Jon Krakauer has turned from extreme adventure to extreme religion in this inside look at a fundamentalist Mormon cult, now about 40,000 strong and worth hundreds of millions of dollars, operating in Canada, Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Texas.
While he details the lives of many of it's members and their practice of middle-aged men marrying multiple, often underage girls, to produce as many children as possible, the main focus of this story is the 1984 slaying of a mother/wife and her daughter. Brothers Dan and Ron Lafferty claiming direct orders from God, brutally murdered their brother Allen's wife and infant daughter.
Jailhouse interviews with Dan Lafferty are chillingly horrific when one is told by a seemingly coherent man that he had direct inspiration from God and he believes he was justified in perpetrating the murders.
Krakauer gives a history of Mormonism, the decision to renounce polygamy to gain statehood and the splitting off by various fundamentalist sects that felt this move amounted to apostasy. Is is also a history of denial - of mainstream Mormonism's denial to acknowledge the damage done to young women forced into marriage to men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers, of this country's denial to believe that a cult as dangerous as the Taliban exists right here on American soil and their brushing aside the fact that in Arizona and Utah, hundreds of women and children, the offspring of these non-legal "spiritual marriages", are supported at the taxpayers' expense.
Read this book and be prepared to be outraged.
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