Thursday, June 23, 2005
book thirty
Under the Banner of Heaven
by Jon Krakauer
This book was totally fascinating. It's an exploration of the history of the Mormon (LDS) church, framed by the story of two Fundamentalist LDS men who murdered their sister-in-law and her little daughter. They claimed that God told them the woman and the baby needed to be killed. But it seemed more that they didn't want the woman interfering with their brother (her husband) and his participation in the Fundamentalist organization.
In the epilogue to the book, Krakauer mentions that writing about Mormons, in contrast to almost any other religion currently in practice, is relatively easy in terms of research. The church has been in existence for less than 200 years, and has been exhaustively recorded throughout its entire history. I knew very little about the history of the LDS church before reading the book, and it was certainly eye-opening... For example, I had no idea that there were multiple violent incidents in Missouri and Illinois where Mormons were actually attacked and killed. I knew that Brigham Young et al moved to Utah to escape persecution, but I didn't realize the persecution was murder as opposed to, say, name-calling and real-estate problems.
I'm a little hesitant to be honest about my reactions, because I don't want to alienate or offend anyone who may be Mormon. I think I can comfortably say that the entire Fundamentalist LDS movement, which is officially not sactioned by the LDS church, is quite horrifying. It seems mind-boggling that in the United States (and Canada, and Mexico) in the year 2005, there are still polygamist societies flourishing. They marry off teenage girls to much older men. They cast out teenage boys to reduce the overpopulation of males (if all the men have 3+ wives, there'd better be a lot more women than men around!). They have pulled their kids out of public school. They collect millions of dollars of welfare because the non-legal wives are, in the eyes of the state, single mothers. They actively oppose government interference in their affairs, which is easy to do in the isolated areas, because all of the judges and law-enforcement officials are FLDS too. And most importantly, they believe the end of the world is coming any minute now - this seems to inform everything they do.
It's a fascinating read. I wish that Krakauer had gone into more detail about what mainline LDS members believe and practice - for example, I don't know if modern Mormons still believe that the earth was created 6,000 years ago, or if that is one of the beliefs the FLDS folks have hung on to. It's pretty fascinating to me that most of the LDS families I knew back in Kansas were extremely polite, motivated, smart, caring, family-oriented people. What is it about Mormonism that creates that kind of behavior? Or is it coincidental? Interesting stuff.
by Jon Krakauer
This book was totally fascinating. It's an exploration of the history of the Mormon (LDS) church, framed by the story of two Fundamentalist LDS men who murdered their sister-in-law and her little daughter. They claimed that God told them the woman and the baby needed to be killed. But it seemed more that they didn't want the woman interfering with their brother (her husband) and his participation in the Fundamentalist organization.
In the epilogue to the book, Krakauer mentions that writing about Mormons, in contrast to almost any other religion currently in practice, is relatively easy in terms of research. The church has been in existence for less than 200 years, and has been exhaustively recorded throughout its entire history. I knew very little about the history of the LDS church before reading the book, and it was certainly eye-opening... For example, I had no idea that there were multiple violent incidents in Missouri and Illinois where Mormons were actually attacked and killed. I knew that Brigham Young et al moved to Utah to escape persecution, but I didn't realize the persecution was murder as opposed to, say, name-calling and real-estate problems.
I'm a little hesitant to be honest about my reactions, because I don't want to alienate or offend anyone who may be Mormon. I think I can comfortably say that the entire Fundamentalist LDS movement, which is officially not sactioned by the LDS church, is quite horrifying. It seems mind-boggling that in the United States (and Canada, and Mexico) in the year 2005, there are still polygamist societies flourishing. They marry off teenage girls to much older men. They cast out teenage boys to reduce the overpopulation of males (if all the men have 3+ wives, there'd better be a lot more women than men around!). They have pulled their kids out of public school. They collect millions of dollars of welfare because the non-legal wives are, in the eyes of the state, single mothers. They actively oppose government interference in their affairs, which is easy to do in the isolated areas, because all of the judges and law-enforcement officials are FLDS too. And most importantly, they believe the end of the world is coming any minute now - this seems to inform everything they do.
It's a fascinating read. I wish that Krakauer had gone into more detail about what mainline LDS members believe and practice - for example, I don't know if modern Mormons still believe that the earth was created 6,000 years ago, or if that is one of the beliefs the FLDS folks have hung on to. It's pretty fascinating to me that most of the LDS families I knew back in Kansas were extremely polite, motivated, smart, caring, family-oriented people. What is it about Mormonism that creates that kind of behavior? Or is it coincidental? Interesting stuff.
Labels: book reports
