Extremes

I have been sadly delinquent as a blogger and reader this month, for some reason. I have only finished one book! It was a good one though: “Under the Banner of Heaven,” by Jon Krakauer, which I read for my book group.

The book is about Mormonism, specifically a breakaway group of fundamentalist Mormons who still practice polygamy. Coincidentally, this story about a compound of Fundamentalist Mormons broke while we were reading the book. I had no idea that so many Mormons were still practicing polygamy, but, as Krakauer describes it, there are several towns in the Western U.S., Canada and Mexico where there are still enclaves of polygamous Mormons.

The Mormon church officially condemns polygamy, but these fundamentalist groups say that true believer must practice it, because it was proclaimed by the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. Smith claims that he received a revelation from God saying that polygamy was an essential sacred practice, but it seems like the truth was more like he decided he wanted to sleep with women other than his first wife, especially younger women. (His first wife was not very happy about this.)

Under pressure from the U.S. government, the church outlawed polygamy in 1890, but as illustrated recently in Texas, the practice still continues. Disturbingly, many of the “wives” are barely older than 15.

Krakauer focuses on the history of the development of fundamental Mormonism. As an extreme example of such fundamentalism, he relates the story of a murder that took place in 1984. Ron Lafferty, a Mormon who had decided he wanted to practice polygamy, claimed he received a revelation from God telling him to kill his sister-in-law, Brenda Lafferty, who he felt was obstructing his efforts to expand his family.

Krakauer’s descriptions of fundamentalist Mormons reminded me of another book I read recently, “The Looming Tower,” about fundamentalist Muslims. In both religions, when taken to extremes, followers believe that not only is their brand of religion the only valid one, but non-believers, or anyone else who gets in their way, must be killed.

There are so many bizarre aspects of Mormonism, from the founding revelation of the church, delivered by an angel named in Moroni in upstate New York, to the long undergarment that all devout Mormons are supposed to wear every day. But to be fair, all major religions have elements that are really strange if you think about them at all. It’s just easier to pick apart Mormonism because it developed so recently and its history has been documented extensively.

Not surprisingly, the book was not very well received by the Mormon church. Amusingly, one day while I was reading it on the T, a young Mormon missionary (I could tell by his nametag) got on the train and sat down across from me. I tried to obscure the cover of the book, I don’t think he noticed it. Phew!