Book Plug: 'Under the Banner of Heaven'

I have been increasingly interested in the history of the Mormon Church since I watched the PBS documentary The Mormons this past spring, which provided an actually-fair-and-balanced view of both Mormon history and the LDS Church today. My brother-in-law lent me Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven in June, but I only got around to reading it this past weekend. While Krakauer's book makes for very interesting reading, he dances around explicitly stating his argument, even though it is woven throughout the whole book: The violence, misogyny, blind obedience, and fear of outsiders noticeable in present-day Mormon fundamentalists has its roots in the very foundations of the Mormon faith, as laid down by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Krakauer therefore appears to partly accept the Mormon fundamentalist argument that they are more in agreement with Joseph Smith's revelations than the mainline LDS Church. I am not knowledgeable enough determine whether or not this is true, but Krakauer lays out an at least somewhat convincing case.

In any event, here are some interesting (at least to me) factoids from the book:

1. Joseph Smith had been convicted of fraud and was a well-known huckster in upstate New York before founding the Mormon faith.

2. Yes, magic glasses and gold tablets were involved.

3. The revelation on plural marriage (section 132 of The Doctrine and Covenants) was never made public during Joseph Smith's lifetime. Instead, Brigham Young revealed this juicy tidbit to the Mormon flock on their way to Utah.

4. Quotable Quote: "vengeance is mine, and I have taken a little" Brigham Young reportedly said upon seeing the monument erected by federal troops to commemorate the Mountain Meadows massacre, which included a cross inscribed with the epigraph, "vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord." Young ordered the monument destroyed.

5. Non-whites were banned from the Mormon priesthood until 1978.

Krakauer appears to be shocked by Mormonism's often-violent history and exclusionary beliefs, but every major religious tradition on Earth has its bloody episodes and its fundamentalists. The big challenge for the LDS Church now, according to both Krakauer and the PBS documentary, is to become more accepting of homosexuals, feminists, and intellectuals (many of whom have been excommunicated in recent years). The problem, of course, is that a religious movement can only accommodate itself to the culture of a given time so much before it loses the essence of what it was in the beginning. This may be the only thing mainline Mormons and the fundamentalists completely agree upon.