Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith


MorMan55
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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.

Has anyone else read this. I thought, for the most part, it was pretty accurate.

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That girl and her child were in my mother in laws ward. Those guys where nut jobs and the reason the girl got killed was because she called them on it. They said they were to be the next prophet yada yada and she spoke up and said that was blasphemy. Sorry but if my brother were to go around preaching how he is the next god and so forth, Id call him out too.

P.S your right on one thing- nut jobs are everywhere. They come in ALL religions, Gender, Race, Age, regions, and so forth. So don't just look around you look EVERYWHERE.

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In 1984, Ron and Dan Lafferty . . . . of Mormon fundamentalism from which the two emerged.

This is technically accurate, but misleading. First, the two men grew up in the mainstream LDS Church.

Second, they did not affiliate with the better known Mormon fundamentalist groups, which is what most people would infer from your (someone else's?) statement. According to Wiki, it was with a very small splinter group that ascribed to Mormon fundamentalism but does not consider itself to be one of the groups commonly known as Mormon fundamentalists.

Elphaba

Edited by Elphaba
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Turley points out the author's anti-religious bias, how he states untruths as fact, presents historical unknowns as if they were fact, holds a main hypothesis that he never manages to produce any evidence for, and creates patterns out of thin air and passes them off as fact.

Foster thinks the book does violence to journalistic integrity.

Krakauer once gave an interview to the Ghanian Chronicle in Nov 2003. I don't think he ever expected people back home to hear what he had to say:

According to Krakauer, "The Strengthening Committee is the KGB of the Mormon Church," and that "To gain an ID card to get into the temple, which is considered the entrance to heaven from earth, you will be called in for investigation. They check you pay your 10% tithe and are not having extra-marital or pre-marital sex. God forbid that you are gay. Then they will ask about you at the bookshop. "What has he been buying lately?"

Krakauer says, "Because Mormons believe there is a fixed number of souls and that by giving birth, you give them life, there is huge emphasis on having as many children as possible. The birth rate in Utah-the headquarters of the Mormon Church is higher than in Bangladesh. But boys and girls aren't allowed to meet, let alone flirt, so there is a lot of sex between siblings. There is also a lot of father-daughter sex. When sex is repressed, it erupts."

"I predict that the Mormon Church is going to face a sex abuse scandal every bit as serious as the Catholic Church," he says, adding, "Abuse against children has been going on since the beginning. Things are coming back to bite them in the arse."

Krauker intimated "There are incrementally higher rates of kidney failure because of in-breeding and the church sweeps it under the rug," "The Mormons are keen on genealogy and know about their genetic defects, but they have covered it up."

"Polygamy is what attracts the attention but it is racism, white supremacy, that is the real scandal," says Krakauer. "In some books sanctioned by the church, it is still suggested that black skin is a curse, the Mark of Cain."

I have a hard time taking anything he says seriously after reading that.

LM

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I won't post the deep link, but if you google the first 2 or 3 lines of the OP, you find exactly where he has copied/pasted from. It's basically the publishers/author's blurb about the book, scattered everywhere the book is sold.

Uninteresting, dull, and factually vacant with far too much artistic license I bet. Into Thin Air I believe was a rip-off of a much better story.

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