What readers think of Under the Banner of Heaven, plus links to write your own review.

Quite honestly, I knew very little about Mormonism. I knew that there were polygamists among them, but beyond that, I knew nothing. This book opened my eyes to their existence, their purpose, their future aspirations.
I was also fascinated by the description of Joseph Smith and how the religion came about through his revelations from God. I can't help but wonder about all prophets and their revelations after reading this book. The author does a superb job of taking the reader deep into the minds of many of the fundamentalists and their strong beliefs. It's rather chilling and, at the same time, thought provoking. I found myself searching the internet for more information about Mormonism after I finished reading the book. It was difficult to put the book down once I started reading it.

I thought this book was very interesting and read it almost in one sitting. I was a little distressed that the author felt the need to respond at length to a critic in the end. Very readable. I bought it for friends just so could talk about it with someone.

Thought the book explained the Mormon History very well, but I thought this took away from the actual story of the Lafferty Brothers. The first 110 pages seemed like they came right out of history book. It really took away my interest from the book quickly. The book also repeats itself in the near closing chapters. However, the author did a great job portraying the chacters Ron and Dan Lafferty, which made for a scary element of the book.

I was fascinated by Jon’s interview with the Laffertys and his research of "Fundamentalist Mormons", but I failed to see any real point to this book. Trying to find the spiritual roots of violence in the deeds of the lunatic fringe seems a bigger stretch than he could manage. His thoughts seemed disjointed and logic fragmented as he jumps back and forth into different phases of (F)/LDS history. Much of this book has been covered before and by much better historians. I found his treatise of the horrific “Mountain Meadow Massacre” to be thin and myopic. He misses the point of religious belief and seemingly seeks to disparage those who have taken their leap of faith. I would recommend Wallace Stegner’s book “Mormon Country” to those who want a better "unbiased" observation of this “unique” American religion.

As a fairly new convert to the lds church, I asked my mother to buy this book. The only one to join out of 8, being lds in the home is like David standing before Goliath. Under the Banner of Heaven is a remarkable book. I have always been intrigued with not only religion, but criminal law and the justice system. There is no doubt, mormon history is quiet colorful. As a very intrigued investigator of the fastest growing church in the world, "bookworm" was my nickname for a year straight. I knew already a lot of what Jon presented, however the grueling murders of the Lafferty's and misconstrude use of a "religious experience gone bad" is almost incoherently possible to percieve. However, when I bought the book I was looking for a bash of literealy mainstream mormons. Advertently, I kept running into all this fundamentalism practice. Basically, the lafferty's from what I understand and accumulated from the research and mind of the book, where excommunicated and consequently turned bitter towards the church. They had to find someway to get the "mormons" back and unforunately killing his brothers wife and daughter would shock the whole state. Furthermore, I gave the book a 3 because it seems well researched as far as the lafferty cases go, and even church "history". I bought the book in fear of finding something to turn me against the church, but actually it was a sad, riveting, and unfortunate morbid murders that kept me endelved in the book until i was at the end of it! Using lds scriptures to substaniate there motive is infallible. Yes, Nephi slayed Laban to get the Brass plates that contained the geanology of Lehi's forefathers, but brass plates that would effect the people as contained in the book, and killing someone because of your bitterness towards a people is consciencely different.

Truthfully,
Cory, 17, Tennessee

This book was good other than the fact that it preached some very wrong ideas about mormanism. The story of the two brothers <<edited for potential plot spoiler content>> is not a good eway to portray all mormans, because there are some that are very nice people and they are not polygamists or psychos. There are religious fanatics in every religion, but that doesnt mean that religion is bad, and that is the feeling i got from this book. Other than that, the autor presents a good story combined with morman history that i find interesting. He presents the story much better than other autors might have done. It makes good references and is skillfully written. I give this book a 3 because of the fact that the author does present mormans in a bad way, and that is not how they are.

Of course there are dark sides to religion. Take for example the Episcopalians who now have an openly gay bishop. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I can rest assured that something of this magnitude will not happen. There is no question in my mind that there are some dark "secrets" in Mormon history. I can't be too sure what happened in the Mountain Meadows massacre. Did Brigham Young personally issue the attack? Who knows? I can say that in my 33 years as a member of the church, I've come across some real idiots who profess to be good Mormons when in fact, they are anything but. That doesn't mean that the teachings are bad and untrue, it means that there are humans running the show. I believe Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father appeared to Joseph Smith. I also believe Joseph Smith was as human as the rest of us and made some stupid mistakes. The author of this book uses only the negative aspects of the history to libel a religion that is the fastest growing in the world. If it were such a terrible religion or "cult" as some like to put it, why is it growing so fast and making so many people happy and make sense of this crisis-filled world?

The author was good about telling the story about these crazy brothers. Unfortunately, it portrayed the mormons as extremest people. Also, he tells some history but makes it sound like a fairy tale. If a person wants to find out more about this religion, a person needs to go directly to the source and do some serious research about the main message given in this religion, not only take the opinion of one person and believe to be true. I encourage people to look beyond one perspective before coming to a conclusion and I promise you will think twice. Crazy people exist in all religions, and not because of their bad ideas a religion should be generalized as bad. For example, the Islam, terrorists use it as an excuse to kill people, but that doesn't mean that was the message that Mohammed was trying to teach. And the list can go on