Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer talks about the brutal killing of an innocent woman and her baby daughter in the mid-1980s by two brothers whom one of them believed that doing so was doing God’s work. It’s the story about how Mormonism and equally important, how the different sects were created, especially the Fundamentalist. It goes to show how the religion was founded by Joseph Smith in the mid-19th century and how one doctrine of his literally split the church with widespread consequences to even the present day, almost two centuries afterwards. The story is nothing like I’ve ever read before where religion is concerned. I’ve read about the Crusades to just recently about the modern Christian church and its last seven popes but nothing seems to be as weird and mesmerizing as to how Mormonism got started. Religion truly can be such a hard and often times disturbing topic to discuss as shown here.

For one thing, I had no idea how Mormonism got started. The really only thing I knew about the religion is that a large portion of Mormons reside in Utah and also that they try really hard to convert others to their faith. Also, I was vaguely aware that Brigham Young University was named after the man himself, who was a Mormon leader at some point. Under the Banner of Heaven talks a great deal about Joseph Smith and how he founded the religion in the 1820s or so. This part of the book was just something I couldn’t unglue my eyes from. The story about the Mountain Meadows Massacre was extremely sad and goes to show how Mormons, even in the religion’s early days, were no different than any other in that violence played a huge part in its history. Secondly, I had no idea how polygamy played such a huge part in splitting the church and its members. The author spends a lot of time on this subject because it is one of the biggest issues that separates the orthodox LDS church from the Fundamentalist church.

Under the Banner of Heaven is a page-turner. It captured my attention and captivated me right from the start. The story it tells of the murders of Brenda and Erica Lafferty will make you shake with anger as well as sadness. It has been almost two decades since the book was published. It makes one even more sad in thinking how much more untold stories there are out there of religious fanaticism causing injury and harm to others.