Under the Banner of Heaven
A Story of Violent Faith
Book Edition Details
Summary
In the shadowy corners of faith and fervor, Jon Krakauer unearths a chilling saga of divine madness and lethal devotion in "Under the Banner of Heaven." Here, the boundaries of belief and morality blur as the Lafferty brothers, ensnared by a radical revelation, execute an unspeakable crime under the guise of heavenly command. This gripping narrative spirals into the heart of Mormon Fundamentalism, where polygamy and prophetic zeal defy both secular and ecclesiastical laws. Krakauer weaves a harrowing tapestry of past and present, exploring a uniquely American extremism that challenges our understanding of faith's power to both uplift and destroy. This is a story as unsettling as it is illuminating, an unforgettable journey into the depths of religious conviction gone awry.
Introduction
On a sweltering July morning in 1984, two brothers walked into a quiet Utah apartment and committed an act so horrifying it would forever change how America understood the relationship between faith and fanaticism. Their victims were a young mother and her fifteen-month-old daughter. Their justification was a divine revelation commanding them to kill. This shocking crime opens a window into one of the most complex and misunderstood chapters in American religious history, where spiritual conviction and violent extremism intersect in ways that continue to challenge our understanding of religious freedom and public safety. The story that unfolds reveals how a faith born from American optimism and divine revelation could spawn movements capable of justifying the most heinous acts. It traces the evolution of religious doctrine from charismatic origins through mainstream transformation to the emergence of radical splinter groups that preserve abandoned practices through isolation and absolute obedience to prophetic authority. Along this journey, we encounter the dangerous alchemy that transforms personal grievance into sacred duty, community loyalty into conspiracy, and religious conviction into justification for violence. This narrative will resonate with readers seeking to understand American religious extremism, the psychology of fundamentalism, and the historical forces that continue to shape contemporary conflicts between religious authority and civil law. It offers crucial insights for recognizing how spiritual movements can evolve from sources of inspiration into instruments of oppression, making it essential reading for anyone grappling with the complex relationship between faith and fanaticism in modern society.
The Foundation: Joseph Smith's Radical Vision and Early Persecution (1820s-1844)
Joseph Smith Jr. emerged from the religious ferment of early nineteenth-century America as one of history's most remarkable and controversial prophets. Born into poverty during the Second Great Awakening, when the American frontier teemed with competing religious movements, Smith possessed an extraordinary combination of charisma, theological innovation, and unwavering conviction that would reshape American religion forever. His claim to direct divine revelation challenged established religious authority and introduced doctrines that scandalized mainstream Christianity while attracting devoted followers willing to sacrifice everything for their faith. The foundation of Smith's movement rested on revolutionary theological concepts that would prove both inspiring and dangerous. His doctrine of continuing revelation meant that God's commandments could evolve and expand, with new directives regularly updating or even contradicting previous teachings. Most controversially, he introduced the practice of plural marriage as a divine commandment essential for achieving the highest levels of salvation. These radical departures from orthodox Christianity created a new religious movement that saw itself as the restoration of primitive Christianity while critics viewed it as dangerous heresy threatening the moral fabric of society. Smith's growing power and radical teachings inevitably generated fierce opposition from neighbors, government officials, and rival religious leaders. His followers faced violent persecution in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, with entire communities driven from their homes by mobs convinced that Mormon beliefs posed an existential threat to American values. The escalating conflict revealed how religious innovation could challenge not just theological orthodoxy but social and political structures, creating cycles of persecution and resistance that would define Mormon culture for generations. The prophet's assassination by a mob in 1844 transformed him from controversial leader into martyred founder, but it also created a succession crisis that would fragment his movement. Most importantly, his death ensured that his most radical doctrines would survive underground, preserved by faithful followers who viewed any compromise as betrayal of divine truth. The seeds of future fundamentalist movements were already planted in Smith's original revelations, waiting for the right conditions to flourish into the extremist interpretations that would eventually justify violence in God's name.
Exodus and Theocracy: Building Zion in Utah Territory (1844-1890)
The murder of Joseph Smith plunged Mormonism into crisis but ultimately strengthened the movement under Brigham Young's pragmatic leadership. Young, who lacked Smith's mystical charisma but possessed superior organizational skills, consolidated power and led the Saints on their epic exodus to the American West. This migration transformed Mormonism from a persecuted sect into a regional empire, while institutionalizing many of Smith's most radical doctrines in ways that would create lasting tensions with American society and government. In the isolated valleys of Utah Territory, the Mormons finally found freedom to practice their religion without outside interference. Young openly proclaimed the doctrine of plural marriage, which Smith had practiced secretly, and established a theocratic society where church and state were indistinguishable. Polygamy became not just accepted but celebrated as a divine principle, while the Saints built a thriving civilization complete with their own militia, currency, and legal system, all under Young's absolute authority. This Mormon kingdom represented a bold experiment in religious governance that challenged fundamental assumptions about American democracy and individual rights. The inevitable collision between Mormon theocracy and expanding American power revealed the limits of religious autonomy in a pluralistic society. Federal officials viewed polygamy as barbaric and Mormon political independence as treasonous, leading to decades of conflict known as the Utah War. As the railroad connected Utah to the outside world and gentile settlers diluted Mormon political dominance, the Saints faced mounting pressure to conform to American norms or face destruction. This external pressure created a siege mentality that would profoundly influence Mormon culture while also setting the stage for future conflicts over religious authority. The confrontation intensified through the 1880s as Congress passed increasingly harsh anti-polygamy laws that threatened to destroy the Mormon Church entirely. Federal marshals hunted polygamist leaders, church property was confiscated, and the Saints faced political and economic annihilation. This systematic persecution forced church leaders to choose between preserving their religious principles and ensuring their institution's survival, a decision that would create lasting divisions within the Mormon community and provide the foundation for future fundamentalist resistance to mainstream accommodation.
The Great Schism: Mainstream Accommodation and Fundamentalist Resistance (1890-1950s)
In 1890, facing the complete destruction of his church, Mormon President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto officially ending the practice of polygamy. This dramatic reversal saved the Mormon Church from extinction and opened the path to Utah statehood, but it also created a profound theological crisis that would fracture the Mormon community for generations. Many faithful Saints struggled to reconcile this apparent abandonment of divine commandments with their belief in continuing revelation, questioning how eternal principles could be sacrificed for political expediency. The mainstream church's transformation from radical sect to respectable American denomination required abandoning not just polygamy but many other distinctive doctrines that had defined early Mormonism. Church leaders emphasized conformity to American values, patriotism, and moral respectability while downplaying the revolutionary aspects of Smith's original teachings. This strategy proved remarkably successful in allowing Mormonism to grow from a persecuted minority into one of America's most prosperous and influential religious movements, but it came at the cost of theological consistency and institutional credibility among true believers. However, not all Mormons accepted this accommodation with mainstream American culture. Small groups of believers, convinced that the church had betrayed its founding principles, broke away to preserve what they saw as the true gospel. These fundamentalists maintained that plural marriage remained a divine commandment regardless of government pressure, and they established isolated communities where they could practice polygamy in secret. They viewed themselves as the faithful remnant preserving authentic Mormonism while the mainstream church had fallen into apostasy, creating a parallel religious culture based on resistance to both secular authority and institutional compromise. The fundamentalist movement remained small and fragmented through the early twentieth century, but it never disappeared entirely. These groups developed their own prophets, revelations, and interpretations of Mormon doctrine, often becoming more extreme than the original church had ever been. They preserved not just polygamy but other abandoned practices like blood atonement, the belief that certain sins could only be forgiven through the shedding of the sinner's blood. By the 1950s, these fundamentalist communities had established themselves as permanent features of the Mormon landscape, setting the stage for future conflicts and tragedies that would expose the violent potential of religious extremism.
Modern Extremism: From Colorado City to the Lafferty Murders (1950s-Present)
The tragic culmination of Mormon fundamentalist extremism emerged in the 1980s when personal crisis intersected with religious fanaticism to produce horrific violence. Ron and Dan Lafferty, raised as devout mainstream Mormons, had gradually embraced fundamentalist beliefs that placed them outside conventional society. When Ron's wife divorced him and took their children, his psychological collapse created a void that would be filled by increasingly radical religious visions, ultimately leading to divine revelations commanding him to murder family members who had opposed his spiritual transformation. The brothers' involvement with groups like the School of the Prophets revealed how fundamentalist communities could become breeding grounds for extremism. In these environments of spiritual experimentation and unregulated prophetic authority, personal grievances could be transformed into sacred duties through the mechanism of divine revelation. Ron's commandment to "remove" his sister-in-law Brenda and her infant daughter Erica provided religious justification for his rage, while his brother Dan became the willing instrument of this twisted theology, demonstrating how religious conviction could override moral restraints and family bonds. The broader fundamentalist movement, centered in isolated communities like Colorado City, had created the ideological framework that made such violence possible. Under leaders like Rulon Jeffs and his son Warren, these communities developed into virtual theocracies where religious law superseded civil authority and absolute obedience to prophetic revelation was demanded. The systematic abuse of women and children, the arrangement of marriages between young girls and older men, and the excommunication of dissenting members created cultures of fear and control that normalized violence as a tool of religious authority. The Lafferty murders and other acts of fundamentalist violence exposed the dangerous legacy of Joseph Smith's original teachings when interpreted through the lens of extremism and isolation. The case forced uncomfortable questions about the relationship between religious freedom and public safety, revealing how claims of divine authority could be used to justify the most heinous acts. Contemporary fundamentalist communities continue to struggle with these tensions, as law enforcement agencies, courts, and society at large grapple with distinguishing between legitimate religious practice and dangerous fanaticism in an era when religious extremism remains a persistent threat to individual rights and community safety.
Summary
The evolution from Joseph Smith's revelations to modern fundamentalist violence reveals a persistent tension at the heart of American religious experience: how movements born from genuine spiritual seeking can transform into instruments of oppression and violence when divorced from moral restraint and community accountability. The thread connecting nineteenth-century polygamy to twentieth-century murder demonstrates how religious authority, when claimed as absolute and unquestionable, creates conditions where extremism can flourish unchecked by outside influence or internal dissent. The historical pattern that emerges shows how isolation, grievance, and claims of exclusive divine access combine to create dangerous forms of religious fanaticism. The fundamentalist insistence on preserving "pure" doctrine, combined with rejection of mainstream authority and emphasis on absolute obedience to prophetic revelation, established the ideological framework that could transform personal crisis into sacred violence. Understanding this progression offers crucial insights for recognizing and addressing religious radicalization before it leads to tragedy, while also illuminating the broader challenges facing pluralistic societies that must balance religious freedom with public safety. The lessons of this history demand vigilance in protecting both individual rights and community welfare. We must foster environments where religious conviction can flourish without becoming fanaticism, where spiritual authority remains accountable to moral principles, and where isolation cannot shield extremism from scrutiny. This requires supporting education and critical thinking, maintaining strong institutions capable of intervention when religious authority becomes abusive, and recognizing that the capacity for both profound good and terrible evil exists within all religious traditions. Most importantly, it reminds us that eternal vigilance remains the price of both spiritual and political freedom in societies committed to both faith and justice.
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By Jon Krakauer
