Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith This book, like a lot of others in the “expose'” genre, attempts to explain the background of a small, intense, and very insular subset of the dominant faith of Utah. Actually, it attempts to explain the connections and rivalries between several similar but different subsets of same, and how they all disavow each other and the “mainline” faith.

Oh, and how certain kinds of unethical, criminal, and horrific acts of violence and mayhem can somehow be justified by said faith(s). I grew up in Utah, so some of the background from the 70’s and 80’s was vaguely familiar, and even so it’s very complicated and confusing. It’s based on a notorious murder case, but that’s only the starting point.

Not long after finishing it, a couple of news stories cropped up in the Trib:

Marshal mum on abuse cases Well, he would be, seeing as he’s hip-deep in it. He admitted he’s probably been too long in “Hicksville.”

FLDS fighting Arizona state takeover of school district, with mention of some odd financial goings-on. The private plane seems like an extravagance, until you consider the other enclaves in Canada and Texas.

Yeah, it’s a weird place, Utah. Isolated pockets of extreme weirdness are tucked away in the oddest corners there.

Anyway, this book does a pretty good job of explaining what the basis is for the thread of violence that runs through the fabric of religious life in isolated parts of Utah, Arizona, Canada, Mexico, Texas… actually, in a lot of places scattered around the West. Also, at the end there’s an interesting afterword by the author, responding to criticism from the expected quarter.