Under the Banner of Heaven

With the 2008 election looming like tax day, I asked my dad, a diehard conservative, who his favorite candidate for president is at this point.

In the eyes of most moderates, John McCain appears to be the favorite, even with his “illegitimate black child” and despite the fact he’s not particularly moderate in his policies. McCain is not overly popular with most conservatives, though, who view him as a waffling, namby-pamby dove in hawk’s clothing.

My dad’s favorite, it turns out, is Mitt Romney.

Romney’s credentials are impeccable. He was the 70th Republican Governor of a Democrat-dominated Massachusetts (strangely, four of the last five governors of Massachusetts were Republican). Romney favors cutting taxes and paring down government spending. He’s pro-life, opposed to same-sex marriage and believes the government shouldn’t reward illegal immigrants. I’m guessing he also loves the USA and supports our troops.

Romney is a true conservative’s dream, a fiscal and social conservative who has cut his teeth in a Blue State. But Romney will present an interesting dilemma come the Republican primaries, because Mitt Romney is a Mormon.

Romney’s potential run for the White House could get ugly, marking an end to the uneasy truce between Evangelical Christianity, the nation’s largest religious affiliation, and Mormonism, the world’s fastest growing religion. Romney’s race has great historical significance, too. As the LDS Church grows into one of the major world religions, campaigning politicians may one day view “the religious right” as intrinsically tied with Mormonism.

Evangelical Christianity has long had a mistrust of the LDS Church, viewing it as a well-meaning and neatly-organized cult. A search of a Christian bookstore turned up over 25 different books on the myths of Mormonism, or books explaining how to evangelize to Latter-Day Saints.

The secular world, especially East of the Mississippi, remains largely ignorant of Mormonism. Into this breach steps John Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, a wonderfully written account of the history of the LDS Church and its numerous fundamentalist offshoots.

Krakauer, a native Oregonian, is quickly becoming the top non-fiction writer around, already hitting it big with Into Thin Air and Into the Wild. His narrative journalism reads like a perfectly surfed wave, carrying the reader from chapter to chapter. Under the Banner of Heaven ties the history of the Mormon Church with the murder of a Utahan woman and her daughter at the hands of Mormon Fundamentalists, bringing to mind Norman Mailer’s Executioner’s Song and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.

The LDS Church has decried Under the Banner of Heaven as anti-Mormon propaganda, but the strength of Krakauer’s argument lies in a sympathy and care for Mormonism not often exhibited by anti-Mormon Christian writers. Krakauer is genuinely riveted by the idea of religious belief, and Mormonism presents a unique study: its history is recent, uniquely American and the LDS Church is known for its meticulous record-keeping. At the same time, the LDS leadership is also known for keeping a tight lid on dissent within the church, and for twisting the church’s bountiful and controversial history into a shiny grin.

Most mainstream Mormons will bristle at the link Krakauer draws between fundamentalist Mormonism and the church as a whole, and the frustration is partially valid: the LDS church has rejected polygamy (at least officially) since the late 1800’s. But the dozens of spin-off faiths and self-proclaimed prophets that have torn themselves away from mainstream Mormonism are reflections on the unique nature of the church, which trusts strongly in personal revelation and a one-on-one relationship with God.

Part of my enjoyment of Under the Banner of Heaven is based on my own appreciation of the Mormon Church. I have close friends who are Mormon, I’ve spent time in Utah, and the history of the Church is richly fascinating. Krakauer’s frustration is with the church’s penchant for revisionist history, believing that the true history of any faith is more a testament to its power than positive editing. I’m inclined to agree.

Under the Banner of Heaven is available from Powells Books.