Under the Banner of Heaven

Rating:
Summary: Krakauer does it again!
Review: It is not a new observation that religious zealotry and mental illness can be an extremely destructive combination. This book describes an example--in which Morman fundamentalist brothers (apparently) murder their sister-in-law and infant niece for religious reasons--while informing the reader about the history of the LDS church and its offshoots.
The author takes a subject which could have been dry as dust and made it totally absorbing for this reader who had absolutely no background in the subject matter. Krakauer has the gift for making every one of the diverse subjects he chooses interesting to the lay reader.
Wisely, Krakauer leaves the formulation of any global conclusions about religious wars to the reader, although the implications of the LDS conflicts to the middle east conflicts are obvious.
It should also be noted that the author appears to fairly state--I can't say for sure because I haven't read the source material--the LDS church's historic reliance upon plural marriage, which Church leaders now minimize or deny, without being normative about it.

Rating:
Summary: Unbiased book
Review: I can't really say that I enjoyed this book--It is graphic and highly disturbing--the content, however, is astounding. Whatever your religious belief(s), this book is a must read. I found especially interesting the parts of the book that dealt with the history of the Mormon church. This a history that you won't get elsewhere. The most impressive detail about UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN is that it is written without religious slant, in fact, I would gather from his writing style that the author espouses no religion whatsoever. His style is challenging and revealing, and while I am personally a Christian, I certainly appreciate his unbiased look at a religion whose history and modern-day appearance have been shrouded in both mystery and illusion.
Great read!

Rating:
Summary: Never seems to get deeper than the surface
Review: I'm not in the LDS, so I've no complaint about Krakauer's close examination of their beliefs. Indeed, I wish more Americans knew of their Mormon friends and neighbors' beliefs: the pre-Columbian Hebrew tribes, the magic spectacles, etc. These things seem so silly to me to be almost self-refuting.

However, Krakauer as a secularist, does not seem able to really distinguish one religious belief from another in terms of their truth claims. He just lumps them all into one big irrational heap. This must be because he is a stranger to religious belief himself and is examining something that he with which he is completely unfamiliar. It also seems to me that those who like this book the most share his innate distrust of and thinly disguised disdain for religion in general.

Is belief in God simply irrational as Krakauer claims? There is increasing acknowledgement in philosophical circles that it is not, even among philosophers who are not theists themselves. There may not be overwhelmingly compelling proof of God's existence (and probably never will be), but many academic philosophers are no longer willing to say that theism is necessarily irrational.

Further, as an outsider to religious belief, Krakauer never seems to go beneath the surface to explain the "why" that makes Mormonism or Mormon fundamentalism attractive. Or why religous belief in general persists in such great numbers in America, when 30 years ago a secular society was expected by most academics.

He also never explores the dichotomy between the strict legalism espoused by all branches of Mormonism and or the flagrant violations of its "moral" code by the fundamentalists. Why, for example, are mainline Mormons so outwardly upright, and these fundamentalists such hypocrites by Mormon standards: swearing, sometimes drinking, and violent, etc.? What sort of rationalization or mental negotiation is going on here? Krakauer never really explores these sort of questions. It's as if he's gone into his project expecting all religous people to be self-righteous hypocrites, so it's completely unremarkable to find examples of the same.

As I've said, those who share Krakauer's predispositions will enjoy this book the most.

Rating:
Summary: Ok, but not author's best work
Review: After all the strong reviews in the newspapers I went into this book with high expectations. But while the reporting was the author's usual detailed chronoligical tale, I found the abundance of names and multiple locations of LDS settlements a little hard to keep straight and keep interested in. The author has clearly reached some conslusons about the LDS church and some of them are well founded, however sometimes I felt his writing was needlessly crtical of the church.

Into the Wild is still his best book, althought Into Thin Air is a close second.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes the truth told by history is hard to accept
Review: I found that this book opened a new era of thinking for me. It provided a view into a church that I had little understanding before. After reading this book and seeing the extremes that are in the church I feel fully confident in holding a conversation about this particular church. It gives a straight forward history as well as a story to show the full picture of what the writer is pointing too.

Rating:
Summary: You won't want to put it down!
Review: I loved this book. Part true crime novel, part Mormon history. Jon Krakauer is the guy who wrote the bestseller Into Thin Air several years ago, and as good as that was, Under the Banner of Heaven is better. Reading like a great novel, it explains the Mormon church, its history, its factions and its juicy dark side, polygamy. The Latter Day Saints are the worlds fastest growing religion, yet most people know little about the beliefs of this secretive faith. This book teach you everything you need to know about the Mormons, but will never bore you. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An frightening descent into religious extremism
Review: Just as mountain climbers are addicted to the thrills of pushing their bodies, minds and spirits to the extreme limits of endurance, so do SOME human beings when confronted with issues of fundamentalist beliefs.

In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, journalist Krakauer takes great (sometimes TOO great as his admirable and considerable care causes his narrative to drag in places)pains to confront the issues that underpin Mormon Fundamentalism. Krakauer is considerate enough to constantly restate that he is not condemning any ONE religion or practice, but rather seeking to scale the heights of the human pscyhe when dealing with issues of religious faith and practice.

This is NOT an attack on people of faith in general or Mormonism in specific. Again Krakauer makes the case that extremist beliefs abound in ALL religions.

That said (after reading so many of the derogatory comments on this product, I feel I must clarify), UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN is a nail biting and fascinating journey into the hearts and minds of the Lafferty Brothers two Mormon Fundamentalists who, in 1985 slit the throats of both their infant niece and sister in law.

Krakeur combines painstaking historical research with objective and yet empathetic insight to portray a true to life thrilling saga that is still a story in progress. His ability to place specific individuals within the broad sociological context of American History is an admirable trait that makes for an excellent read.

A fine work of journalism not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: God is indeed an imaginary friend for grown-ups...
Review: This book seems to have two distinct themes: On one level, Krakauer has written a chilling report from the lunatic fringe of Fundamentalism within our own borders. This in itself is very interesting as a sociological/psychological study of conviction gone terribly wrong. That particular theme may have benefited from a closer comparison to Islamist fanaticism, for example, but would probably have turned the book into a multi-volume tome.
On another level, by researching the history of the Mormons, both the `mainstream' and fundamentalist factions, he's taken a very critical look at religion as a cultural phenomenon, and it's this aspect of the book that really stuck with me. I can see why some Mormons might not appreciate the picture he painted, but as a non-religious person, I have to say I found the story interesting. I knew very little about the Latter Day Saints, just as I at one point knew little about the Jehovah's Witnesses, or Quakers, or numerous other groups of believers that I find just as kooky as the Mormons.
Did he make the origins of Mormonism look violent, hypocritical and somewhat ridiculous? Sure, but I'll bet the birth of Catholicism, for example, wasn't any more pure or righteous.

Though not the main thrust of the book, Krakauer thoughtfully and carefully defies Political Correctness to explore a view that millions of people share: Religion is basically comfort food for the soul; that the need for an organized faith has very little to do with the actual search for objective (self) knowledge but everything to do with wanting easy answers to unanswerable questions. Though understandable, this urge to banish insecurity and doubt at the cost of logic becomes, at best, laughable like when a Mormon scientist actually believes that the world is 6 thousand years old, and, at its worst, delusional and dangerous as when a charismatic leader calls every whim that pops into his mind a "revelation".
As a person who has never believed that I needed a religion to be a `good' person, this view was refreshing, and if you feel differently, you probably won't like this book very much. (Having a Scandinavian background, I'm always amazed at how so many 'ungodly' social-democrat welfare states come so much closer to achieving the virtues that Christianity likes to claim, when in practice, almost every Christian group maintains an "us-against-the-rest-of-the-world" mentality, and the Church of Latter Day Saints appear no different)

A comment on some of the other reviews: Krakauer did not grow up as a Mormon. He merely states that he had many Mormon acquaintances in his youth. I'm not sure why some of the readers interpreted this book as some kind of "getting back at Mormons", it plainly isn't.



Rating:
Summary: Interesting look into Mormon Fundamentalism
Review: Very interesting look into the lives of Mormon Fundamentalists. To understand Mormon Fundamentalism, Krakauer delves into the very beginnings of Mormonism and the historical events that allow the readers to better understand how such break-off groups could emerge.

Some active Mormons who have written reviews of Krakauer's book have criticized it for being warped, twisted, untruthful, and fictitious regarding Mormon history. However, as a Mormon for over forty years and one who has been involved in Mormon history, I must admit to these Mormon reviewers that almost all of what Krakauer wrote about early Mormonism is quite accurate.

Most Mormons have a very limited understanding of their own church's history. The LDS church goes to great lengths to suppress any history of their religion that is not "faith promoting" and have even "changed" history to make it less troubling. They discourage members from reading material they deem inappropriate. Because of these policies most church members are taught a very simplified, sanitized and inaccurate version of history. Then when they read a book such as this that exposes some of what really happened, they lash out by exclaiming they are "lies" and "anti-Mormon" propaganda and they give the book a poor rating. If you look at the one star ratings of this book, you will notice that they are almost all by Mormons who feel the history of their church has been wrongly depicted.

Although there are a few minor errors in the book and some "subjective" pronouncements, as a whole, I have found the book quite accurate and richfully insightful about the rather troubling aspects of religious fanaticism which, to this day, are still entrenched in our societies.

Rating:
Summary: Fundamentalism under the magnifying glass
Review: We all know about fanatic Islamists. But we can also look at ourselves more completely and see some signs of a desire to have power, be right (I mean that we have a desire to be more correct than others who disagree with us), worship a Devine being, be famous, etc. I went to a meeting with some vegetarians once (with an old girlfriend) and was impressed by the similarities their leader had to other notable religious and environmental leaders. Environmentalists have killed people; non-Mormon anti-abortion activists have killed people; fanaticism is sometimes a terrible thing and I appreciate this book for illuminating one more fanatic group, and helping us to understand our basic need for power and glory.

Having personally been raised Mormon, serving a two-year mission, graduating from BYU with two degrees, knowing a woman whose mother lived in the dream mine (described in Krakauer's book), having seen polygamists at a distance when I was geologically mapping public lands in Nevada, having great grandparents on both sides of my family who were polygamists, I think I am pretty familiar with some of the material in this book. However, I am also a little annoyed by the negative reactions toward mainstream Mormonism (LDS faith) by well educated individuals who don't have the same background as me. I still think it is a great book and would recommend it to anyone. My Jewish father-in-law, who was raised orthodox, comprehends the message that I am trying to get across here better than most. Basically, the attitude of "You really believe that BS? What is wrong with you? You're really *@%#ed up." The answer, according to my father-in-law, is that most people believe and do things that don't make sense in the big scheme of things. Most Christians, Muslims, Jews etc. believe some wacky things and honor great, influential, characters who really did have flaws. It's easy to pick on Mormons because modern archaeology an DNA testing can prove some aspects of the Book of Mormon to be false. I highly recommend Fawn Brodie's book No Man Knows My History if they want to read more on the topic of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints origins.

Jon Krakauer is one of my favorite authors. My wife and I don't read the same books but both of us were completely mesmerized by Into Thin Air. This is another great book by Krakauer.