Finished Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven this week. Incredibly interesting book if you’ve never heard about it. Krakauer takes an in-depth look at the history of Mormonism, how some sects within it came about (specifically the Mormon Fundamentalists), and how a few of those Fundamentalists were involved in a horrible murder that took place in 1984. Definitely a worth-while read. At the end of the book, he focuses a bit on the trial of the two brothers who were charged with the murder of their sister-in-law and her 15-month-old daughter. The Lafferty brothers claimed that this message came from God, and yet their lawyers were trying to use the insanity plea, which then causes Krakauer to raise some very interesting questions in relation to religion and revelation from God…
Krakauer writes:
“Such a defense would unavoidably raise the same difficult epistemological questions that had come to the fore after the Tenth Circuit Court’s ruling in 1991: if Ron Lafferty were deemed mentally ill because he obeyed the voice of God, isn’t everyone who believes in God and seeks guidance through prayer mentally ill as well? In a democratic republic that aspires to protect religious freedom, who should have the right to declare that one person’s irrational beliefs are legitimate and commendable, while another person’s are crazy? How can a society actively promote religious faith on one hand and condemn a man for zealously adhering to his faith on the other?”
Good questions. I think the first obvious answer would be that if one person’s religious freedom is causing injury, harm and actively pursuing to infringe on another’s freedom to not take part in that religion or system of beliefs…
Krakauer continues:
“This, after all, is a country led by a born-again Christian, President George W. Bush, who believes he is an instrument of God and characterizes international relations as a biblical clash between forces of good and evil. The highest law officer in the land, Attorney General John Ashcroft, is a dyed-in-the-wool follower of a fundamentalist Christian sect – the Pentecostal Assemblies of God – who begins each day at the Justice Department with a devotional prayer meeting for his staff, periodically has himself anointed with sacred oil, and subscribes to a vividly apocalyptic worldview that has much in common with key millenarian beliefs held by the Lafferty brothers and the residents of Colorado City. The president, the attorney general, and other national leaders frequently implore the American people to have faith in the power of prayer, and to trust in God’s will. Which is precisely what they were doing, say both Dan and Ron Lafferty, when so much blood was spilled in American Fork on July 24, 1984.”
So, if we want to get technical…yes, that is exactly what they thought they were doing the day they committed the murder. Trusting God and having faith in God’s will. Can we equate their understanding of doing God’s will with Bush’s? Or Ashcroft’s? Is that too ridiculous…? Or is there some truth in that…?