"He had a fervent desire to save the Constitution—and the country," said a long-time friend. "It became a religious obsession."
This quotation expresses how Dan Lafferty regarded both the Book of Mormon and the United States Constitution as sacred, immutable texts to be interpreted literally. Dan, like many fundamentalists, entwines church and state. Here, the word "religious" conveys the intensity with which Dan approached his political beliefs. This quotation also establishes Dan's sense that he is exceptional, someone who can "save" as massive an institution as the United States.
He was imbued with that exceedingly rare magnetism possessed by history's most celebrated religious leaders—an extraordinary spiritual power that always seems to be wrapped in both great mystery and great danger.
This quotation evokes the power and danger of a charismatic leader. Smith's cult of personality was powerful enough to compel his followers to abandon their long-held morals and engage in behaviors they previously would have viewed as abhorrent, such as polygamy, looting, and vengeance killing. Throughout the text, the author questions how much of Mormonism's appeal is attributable to its theology and how much is attributable to Smith's charisma.
Making money was a righteous pursuit: the Lord smiled on the rich, as well as those who aspired to become rich. And anyone who elected to obey church authorities, receive the testimony of Jesus, and follow a few simple rules could work his way up the ladder until, in the afterlife, he became a full-fledged god—the ruler of his very own world.
This quotation illustrates one of the many reasons Mormonism appealed to many nineteenth-century Americans. Unlike contemporaneous Protestant sects, which celebrated austerity and glorified poverty, Mormonism provided space for believers to partake in material pleasures and exercise the myriad freedoms the American Constitution promised. By framing wealth as an indication of virtue rather than vice, Smith attracted powerful supporters. Like the American ideal that anyone can rise from humble roots to the highest office, Mormonism promised that any believer could become godlike in the afterlife.
His desperate desire to reform the church made him far more formidable than if he had set out to damn the prophet and all his works.
This quotation explains how, when William Law broke with the Mormon church over the doctrine of polygamy, he inadvertently set in motion a legacy of Mormon prophets creating splinter sects to practice their extreme theologies. As the quotation suggests, Joseph Smith was a controversial figure whom many regarded as an amoral charlatan. But by trying to reform the church, Law validated the idea Smith's church as a divinely ordained institution corrupted by a fallible leader.
"In The Book of Mormon, Moroni talks about how all of us have an obligation to make sure we have a good and just government, and when I read that, it really got me going. It made me realize that I needed to start getting involved in political issues. And I saw that when it comes right down to it, you can't really separate political issues from religious issues. They're all tied up together."
An adversarial relationship with secular authorities is explicitly recommended in Mormonism's foundational text. Combined with the Mormon belief that the faithful alone have the accurate word of God, Moroni's message becomes a call to action, as Dan Lafferty expresses in this quotation.
"Hence, at Nauvoo the innocent children of God realized their identity through their struggle against the evil followers of Satan, who dominated American society everywhere except in the city of the Saints. The problem, of course, with this kind of dichotomous myth is that, for the people who hold it, guilt and innocence become matters of belief, not evidence."
This quotation concisely summarizes the theme of exceptionalism. Beginning in Nauvoo, the Mormons considered themselves above the law and separate from it. Framing Nauvoo as the only righteous stronghold in a nation of evil strengthened the church's binary understanding of good and evil. This black-and-white morality is evident throughout the various communities Krakauer profiles, including the Lafferty brothers.
Getting baked, Dan observed, was "much like becoming a child and being introduced into a whole new world. . . . I've concluded that the scripture which says, 'Unless you become like a little child, you can't see the Kingdom of Heaven' is another secret reference to getting high; as is also the mysterious account of Moses seeing God through the burning bush."
In this quotation, Dan offers scriptural evidence to justify his interest in marijuana. Throughout the text, Dan consistently adjusts his beliefs to suit his behaviors, and retroactively applies scripture to support his conclusions. FLDS prophets, such as Rulon Jeffs, also exhibited this kind of fluid faith. Jeffs notoriously adjusted his theology each time his doomsday predictions did not come to pass.
On the morning of July 24, Pioneer Day, Dan got up, prayed, and felt prompted by the Lord to saw the barrel and stock off a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun that he had been storing at his mother's house.
This quotation strikingly juxtaposes Dan's faith life with his violent actions. It is almost comical that Dan claims to feel God calling him to use crude weaponry to commit a murder.
"He looked all over the field, and was quite pale, and looked uneasy and frightened. I thought then that he was just finding out the difference between giving and executing orders for wholesale killing."
After ordering the massacre, Colonel Dame viewed the casualties at the Mountain Meadows Massacre for the first time with shock and horror. Lee's observation reveals a parallel to the Lafferty murders; members of the School of Prophets accepted the validity of Ron's "removal revelation," but were horrified at the aftermath, except for Dan, who felt no remorse.
"God is greater than the United States, and when the Government conflicts with heaven we will be ranged under the banner of heaven and against the
Government... I defy the United States; I will obey God."
In this infamous quotation, from which the text takes its title, Prophet John Taylor encourages his followers to continue the practice of polygamy in defiance of the law. Taylor encapsulates the theme of exceptionalism in this quotation, illustrating the common FLDS belief that followers of God have the right to violate laws they believe to be unjust. Taylor uses the phrase "under the banner of heaven" to illustrate that God's word and the state are often at odds, like two nations at war.
