Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith explores the history of Mormon fundamentalism, using this narrative as context to explain the tragic, gruesome murders of Erica and Brenda Lafferty by Dan and Ron Lafferty. The Laffertys grew up in a culture founded on the principles of exceptionalism and hardline morality. The text, written in a journalistic style that intercuts the history of the founding of the Mormon Church with the story of the Lafferty murders, traces the direct roots of these principles back to the church's founding.
The text opens with an account of the aforementioned murder of Brenda Lafferty and her young daughter, Erica. Brenda married Allen Lafferty, the youngest member of the well-known Lafferty clan. The five Lafferty brothers join a fundamentalist group of Mormons called the School of Prophets, an extremist cult under the auspices of the fundamentalist Mormon group FLDS (the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). They begin to act on their extreme views, taking multiple wives and evading taxes. Dan and Ron, Allen's brothers, blame Brenda for fracturing their tight-knit family and claim to receive a "removal revelation," where God commands Ron to murder his enemies, including Brenda and her infant daughter.
Throughout the text, Krakauer follows Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, who claimed to receive direct messages from God, and the first Mormon converts as they travel across the country. Krakauer pays particular attention to the early Mormons' experiences in Jackson County, Missouri, and Nauvoo, Illinois. Throughout his tenure as Prophet, Smith affirms that his church is accountable only to God's laws, not to any government entity. According to Smith and his successors, God reveals his laws through direct communication with the Prophet. Dan and Ron Lafferty, believing they also received messages from God, feel justified in breaking rules they believe do not apply to them. Krakauer's profile of the remorseless Dan Lafferty is chilling, a poignant example of how extremist religious views can completely take over a person's sense of morality.
Smith ultimately dies at the hands of an angry mob, creating a power vacuum. The church then elects Brigham Young as its leader. Young's election and his later contentious decisions, including his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, cause a schism, leading to the creation of the FLDS sect.
The text also discusses crimes committed by other FLDS communities, such as Bountiful and Colorado City, to show that the Lafferty brothers' extremist views and subsequent violent acts were not an isolated incident but rather part of an alarming trend. These communities have well-documented histories of coercing underage girls to marry older men, carrying out vengeance killings, and controlling their members through force.
Using direct quotations from interviews and analyses by scholars and historians, Krakauer paints a vivid picture of how the Mormon faith has been misused throughout its short history to justify cruelty. However, Krakauer clearly states that most believers embrace an enriching, pacifistic tradition, which the text illustrates through vibrant descriptions of contemporary Mormon culture.
