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Review: New Krakauer provocative
By L.D. Meagher
(CNN) -- Author Jon Krakauer has a new book out. That's good news for fans of his earlier best sellers "Into Thin Air" and "Into the Wild." It's not particularly welcome news to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Indeed, the church was excoriating Krakauer as soon as "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith" reached bookstore shelves. At the core of the book is a double murder. On June 24, 1984, Brenda Lafferty, a 24-year-old housewife, and her 15-month-old daughter Erica were slashed to death. There is no mystery about who did it. Brenda's brothers-in-law, Dan and Ron Lafferty, freely admit they committed the killings. Both strenuously deny, however, that they are guilty of murder. It is this part of the story that has the Mormon church so upset. The Lafferty brothers are converts to a fundamentalist brand of Mormonism that encourages its members to have religious revelations and requires them to practice polygamy. The brothers insist they killed their sister-in-law and niece on orders from God. Following a trailThese religious convictions impel Krakauer to examine the roots of this particularly American faith. He finds those roots steeped in blood, from the days of church founder Joseph Smith (who was killed by an Illinois lynch mob) forward. He even follows the trail of Mormon fundamentalism to the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in June 2002. The author interweaves history and current events with the story of the Lafferty brothers and their immersion in the far reaches of the Mormon church. The "revelation" to kill wasn't their only message from on high. "In one of Ron's revelations," Krakauer writes, "God had, in fact, instructed him to send his brother Mark to Nevada to wager on a horse race to raise funds for the City of Refuge [the project of a self-anointed fundamentalist prophet]. With the Lord letting Mark know which mount to bet on, it seemed they couldn't lose. But they did." The chief complaint the church leadership lodges about Krakauer is his "basic thesis appears to be that people who are religious are irrational, and that irrational people do strange things." Actually, Krakauer doesn't make that argument. Ron Lafferty's lawyer did at his murder trial. It didn't work. He's on death row and his brother Dan is serving life. Powerful workKrakauer is not terribly reverent about the teachings of Joseph Smith and his successors but he doesn't seem to have a particular anti-Mormon agenda. Indeed, he claims he became fascinated by the Mormons he grew up around in Oregon, people he calls "my childhood friends and playmates, my teachers, my athletic coaches." He does draw distinctions between the current Salt Lake City church establishment and its often-violent offshoots. "Under the Banner of Heaven" is a provocative book. It raises some very uncomfortable questions, not only about Mormon fundamentalists, but about religion in general and religious zealots of all stripes. Krakauer has delivered a powerful and deeply absorbing account of what drives people to commit unpardonable acts in the name of redemption.
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