Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

When Emma Smith told Joseph Smith that he must stop engaging in polygamy or she would take plural husbands, Smith received a new revelation from God. This time, the revelation was directed at Emma. She was to submit to her husband and understand that any woman who took plural husbands was in direct opposition to God’s will and would burn in hell. Smith’s message was clear. The Mormon faith did not elevate and empowered women. In fact, women were expected to remain subservient to their husbands who were members of the priesthood and heads of the household.

Throughout the book, Krakauer shows how these patriarchal expressions of religion nearly always lead to violence and oppression. In the FLDS, Rulon Jeffs and his successors married women, often against their will, to men who already had multiple wives. Jeffs stressed the importance that women “Keep Sweet, No Matter What” and never question the ruling of the Prophet (33). In many cases, these men were twice, even three times, the age of the young girls that were forced to marry them. Mary Ann Kingston was forced to become the 15th wife to her 32-year-old uncle. Mary Ann Kingston was 16. Stories like Mary Ann’s are rampant among FLDS and other fundamentalist Mormon sects. Jeffs warned against watching television and consuming media not produced by the FLDS. In the Lafferty family, the boys were forced to watch as their father, Watson Lafferty Sr., clubbed the family dog to death.

In Chapter 3, Krakauer quotes the Salt Lake Tribune, which theorizes that Mormonism was never about polygamy but about authority. The stories revealed in Krakauer’s book seem to prove this point: dissent is not tolerated, and women should submit. Brian David Mitchell, a fundamentalist who believed God was calling him to kidnap a young girl and take him as his wife, was able to brainwash her by capitalizing on her patriarchal religious training in the LDS.

Brenda Lafferty represented a challenge to this hierarchical structure. While a pious follower of the LDS faith, Brenda was also spirited and educated. Ron and Dan saw Brenda as a threat to what they believed to be the sacred order of things. Because patriarchal structures are dependent upon ideas like power, control, dominance, and strength, violence is an inevitable outcome.

Another theme in Krakauer’s work is ignoring and overlooking warning signs and the dangerous implications of religious extremism. Krakauer suggests that by erasing polygamy from their messaging and never addressing many of Joseph Smith’s more controversial teachings, the modern LDS creates an open pathway for fundamentalist sects to embrace these concepts. Rather than confronting the ideas head-on and empowering LDS followers to consider the possibility of an imperfect Prophet, LDS leaders ensure that there will always be those who see Joseph Smith and other prophet leaders as infallible.

This theme is similarly expressed by the Colorado City Police Department when the police chief, a fundamentalist Mormon and practitioner of polygamy, Sam Roundy, suggested that what happens within a person’s home is their private business. In many of the stories Krakauer shares, including the women who ran away from abusive homes, individuals are returned to dangerous situations in the name of family privacy. The story of Debbie Palmer exemplifies this. After experiencing the abuse of her husband, her family returned her to his home.

Brenda Lafferty’s sister Betty described a similar situation. When Brenda detailed her marital troubles with Allen—leaving out the physical abuse—Betty encouraged her to make it work, despite knowing that Brenda’s husband was engaging in extremist practices. Krakauer’s book is a warning against turning a blind eye toward religious fanaticism, especially because of its proclivity toward violence.