Under The Banner Of Heaven By Jon Krakauer

In 2003, the nonfiction author Jon Krakauer published his book Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Motivated to expand the typically Islam-focused understanding of religious extremism that dominated the U.S. after 9/11, Under the Banner of Heaven addresses fundamentalism and the violence that often accompanies it in a totally different context – the Mormon faith. Krakauer tells in parallel the history of Joseph Smith and the founding of his church, and of the modern-day extremist offshoots that embrace Mormon beliefs but do not belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). By juxtaposing the brutal double murder committed by the fundamentalist Lafferty brothers in 1984 with the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre

Of course, Krakauer does agree that most Mormons are peaceful, industrious, and law-abiding. He also takes as given that the mainstream LDS church rejects the idea that the splinter groups he is describing have anything to do with modern Mormon beliefs. But nevertheless, the fundamentalist extremists Krakauer profiles use the same book of scripture and espouse most of the same religious

The effects of fanaticism, no matter what belief system it espouses, seem eerily similar: hostility and sometimes violence towards outsiders as well as the surveillance and policing of members. Krakauer asks us to consider what our country’s dedication to the idea of freedom of religion means in the face of this kind of extremist faith. He also wonders what to make of the Lafferty brothers’ claims to have spoken to God – do we consider them mentally ill? And if we do, does that mean that all people who claim to have communed with God are also mentally