On July 24, 1984, in American Fork, Utah, brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, murdered their sister-in-law and her 15-month-old baby daughter. They did it because they believed God told them to. The Lafferty brothers were both fundamentalist Mormons.
In Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer interweaves this true-crime 1984 murder story with the fascinating history of the Church of Latter Day Saints, showing the undercurrent of violence and bloodshed prevalent in the religion since the early days, a legacy that endures in the Mormon fundamentalist sect which the Lafferty brothers wholeheartedly embraced.
Mormonism is impressive, seemingly a force of nature. A huge and globally important religion — over eleven million members, world-wide — it was begun by the charismatic Joseph Smith in upstate New York in 1830. Smith was the ultimate salesman, by all accounts handsome, articulate, and charming. When he announced that the angel Moroni had given him a set of golden plates inscribed with a sacred text and had also provided him with “magic spectacles” with which to read the sacred text, amazingly people believed him. And when Smith said that the angel had taken the golden plates and magic eyeglasses back, but he, Joseph Smith, would tell them what had been written there, people still believed him.
Part of the reason people believed Smith was because in the nascent Mormon faith, God would speak directly to anyone, a freedom most religions of the time would not countenance. Neither was the God of the Mormons a punishing God: He wanted His people to be happy, healthy, and productive. These tenets were attractive to folks and Smith drew converts like flies to honey.
Later, of course, Smith had a “revelation” that only specific Mormon prophets like himself would be speaking directly to God, thus cutting down on the hoi polloi’s input into how things should be run. Further “revelations” led Smith to incorporate “celestial” or “plural” marriage into Mormonism — that, or Smith just couldn’t keep it in his pants. When the Mormon Church, under serious pressure from the U.S. government, officially denounced polygamy in 1890, the schism between mainstream Mormons and the fundamentalists began.
Article comments
1 - Jennifer Bogart
Very interesting. Even in the mainstream Mormon church today, members take temple vows where they agree to disembowelment if they 'spill the beans' about temple ceremonies and a variety of other misdemeanors.
2 - Mr. N.
You are behind the times Bogart, that is no longer the case and has not been for many years. The temple ceremonies are not discussed outside of the temples because they are sacred and God does not want us to. This means that the members do not speak of the ceremonies even amongst themselves when they are outside the temples, so obviously they would not do so with nonmembers too. The world makes too much of it, because they think there must be something sinister going on if they don’t know everything, but it is a ridiculous notion. It should also be noted that The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an entirely separate religion from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among other things, the mainstream Latter-days Saints with over 13 million members from all over the world, no longer practice polygamy and have not done so for over hundreds of years.
3 - Friend Mouse
According to Krakauer's research, the mainstream LDS renounced polygamy in 1890, so that's technically just over 100 years ago. This book makes it very clear that the Fundamentalists are separate from the mainstream Church.