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Jon Krakauer chronicles dark moments of Mormon history

by Jonathan Frey

Dan Lafferty believes he's a modern day Elijah whose purpose is to identify Christ when he returns to initiate the 1,000-year reign of the Kingdom of God. Dan also believes his brother Ron is Satan's minion directed to kill Dan and thereby waylay the Second Coming. Both Ron and Dan are presently imprisoned and unrepentant in Utah for the murder of their brother Allen's wife and daughter on July 24, 1984.

These curious facts constitute the central focus of Jon Krakauer's unlikely new book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (Doubleday, $26). Heretofore, Krakauer's been best known as a contributor to Outside magazine and for two popular works of nonfiction, Into Thin Air, about the tragic 1996 Everest disaster that left nine dead, and Into the Wild, concerning a 23-year-old who divests himself of all possessions only to be found two years later starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness. While the characteristics of obsession and extremism weave a common thread through Krakauer's books, none of his previous writings could have foreshadowed the exegesis of religious fanaticism contained in this latest offering. Moreover, in contrast to Krakauer's earlier work, Banner of Heaven contains matters of broad currency, topics that have recently captured a large fraction of the public's imagination.

One of those topics of broad interest is religious fanaticism (although ordinarily of the non-domestic variety). Dan, Ron, Allan, and three other Lafferty brothers are former members of The School of the Prophets, a religious organization modeled after an institution of the same name established in 1832 by Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS, also known as the Mormons). Today's School of the Prophets represents one of many re-interpretations of the LDS tradition, which has a rich history of splinter groups most notably of the fundamentalist variety, many of which advocate early Mormon teachings since abandoned by the current LDS leadership. Teachings common among such groups include the practice of "plural marriage" (polygamy), white supremacy, "blood atonement" ("sinners have their blood spilt upon the ground"), and direct, divine revelation for all, the latter being the liberating catalyst for new factions, empowering individuals to receive and extol heavenly truths directly rather than through established LDS organs.

To source the fundamentalist fanaticism driving the actions of his main protagonists, Krakauer summarizes LDS history from its beginnings in Palmyra, NY, in 1830 to the contemporary celebration of Pioneer Day on July 24, the anniversary of the Mormons' 1847 arrival in the Salt Lake Valley and the exact day 137 years later when Dan and Ron commit the brutal murders for which they are incarcerated. From this history emerges the slaughter of innocents in the name of religion, religious leaders bent on bloodshed, abuse of children by the priesthood, bigamy, kidnapping, millennialism, institutionalized racism, spouse abuse, male chauvinism—an array of what makes today's headlines on dailies worldwide, yet herein encapsulated, as if the substance of international and domestic news were collected and condensed into one timely and zeitgeist-representative distillation.

Banner of Heaven shares shelf space with a number recent titles on Mormonism, including Will Bagley's Blood of the Prophets (2002), Terry Givens' By the Hand of Mormon (2002), Robert Remini's Joseph Smith (2002), and Richard Abanes' One Nation Under Gods (2002). Together they form a collective scrutinizing of the LDS past for the most part neither welcome nor appreciated by Church leadership. Mormonism suffers the consequences of recent origin, the breadth of its history documented and accessible in ways other religions are not, leading to historical inspections other religions are less subject to. While Krakauer appears sensitive to this risk and generally avoids the tone of, for example, Abanes' One Nation (which impugns the LDS, containing defamatory letters from former Mormons and Mormon-leader offspring), there are moments when it isn't apparent whether the irony is Krakauer's or situational, as in the following: "On the morning of the July 24, Pioneer Day, Dan got up, prayed, and felt prompted by the Lord to saw the barrel and stock off a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun that he had been storing at his mother's house."

As a chronicle of the Laffertys specifically and the LDS more generally, Banner of Heaven is an engaging read. The Laffertys' tale presents a fascinating case study of human extremism; the LDS story a rare, near real-time glimpse of a developing faith's arc from emergence to broadening acceptance. Together they illustrate two of many possible outcomes resulting from the continued emancipation of faith, commencing from 16th century reformism that liberated scripture for an individual's interpretation, to the further unfettering by early Mormon principles that advocated an individual's freedom to create holy writ.