Blood Atonement

 TV: Under the Banner of Heaven

Warning: spoilers and strong opinions about religion ahead!

Based on the excellent book by Jon Krakauer, the TV miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven is...not bad.

In short, the book is about the 1984 murder of Brenda Lafferty, a young Mormon mother, and her 15 month old daughter, Erica. Brenda and Erica were murdered by her brothers-in-law, Dan and Ron Lafferty. Ron and Dan were the oldest of five Lafferty brothers and they came from a family that was devout-bordering-on-insane. The two brothers came to believe that God was sending them revelations, including a revelation to "blood atone" Brenda and Erica. Blood atonement is a concept from Mormon history that suggests some sins are so great that only by killing the sinner and spilling their blood on the ground can you save their eternal souls. A lot of the less savory aspects of Mormon history, including blood atonement, have been actively censored by LDS leadership in the church (note: I'm going to use LDS [Latter-Day Saints] and Mormon interchangeably throughout this review). 

If you want to learn more, I recommend reading the book and reading up on other books about the history of the LDS church. I'm by no means an expert, and the opinions expressed throughout this review are just based on the little I do know. 

The show adds two characters that weren't in the book: Jeb Pyre (played by the sensitive and always excellent Andrew Garfield), a devout Mormon detective, and Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham, a breath of fresh air and humor in an otherwise grim show), a no-nonsense detective of Paiute ancestry. The two men serve as two perspectives on the crime: Bill sees it for what it is--two bloodthirsty and violent men murdering two innocents, including a baby. But for Jeb, his entire world and way of thinking has been blown open by the fact that members of his own supposedly peace-loving religion committed such a ghastly crime.

I have three criticisms of this show. First, the focus is so much more on the murderers than the victims. Part of that is simply because that's the story from the book, and part is because the "juicy" aspect of this story is how such clean-cut Mormon boys became so depraved and violent due to their own God complexes and egos. So, it's forgivable. But I would have loved to see more of Brenda's perspective and why she married into an incredibly judgmental, fucked up family and also why she stayed. 

Another criticism I have is that the show is very expository. There are LOTS of scenes that are just discussions between people where one person is explaining a concept to another. The first episode is nearly entirely a conversation between Det. Pyre and Allen Lafferty, Brenda's husband. There is plenty of action as well, but so much of this show is for the benefit of people who haven't read the book and don't know shit about Mormons.

The final criticism is that the morals are spoonfed to the audience. As Det. Pyre gets deeper and deeper into the case, he realizes that not only will the church not help him, church leaders basically tell him to not do his job, stop asking questions, or suffer excommunication. He discovers aspects about Mormon history that suggest--*gasp*--it was just a bunch of men making shit up as they went along to suit themselves! And yet. AND YET! In the last episode Pyre suggests that Det. Taba goes through life "with no compass". The fucking stones on this guy. He just learned that his own religion is full of lies, misogyny, and violent bloodshed and he tells a man--a man with dark skin, who has faced blatant racism from the Mormons throughout the show--that he "has no compass".

Obviously, Taba tears Pyre a new one and we aren't meant to agree with Pyre, but it just felt so lacking in nuance and obvious. Has Pyre learned nothing? In the end, he returns to his wife and daughters, a loving Mormon father again. Meanwhile, I'm here screaming LEAVE YOUR FUCKING RELIGION YOU DOOFUS!!!

So I think this is what *really* annoys me about this show (which, let me remind you, is a really good show and you should watch it!): it acts like fundamentalist religion and "regular" religion are two separate, distinct things. Whereas I believe the line isn't as clear as some people make it out to be. Does this mean I think no one should have any religious beliefs. Ummm...sort of? I think the only "religion" should be kindness, as cheesy as that sounds. I think that many religions have their roots in hierarchical beliefs that put some people on top and others below, and that any religion that has hierarchies like that are inherently, well, immoral. Because it allows people to treat others as "less than" and believe doing so is God's will. 

Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention released a report of widespread sexual abuse within their denomination. The SBC is famously conservative and has fought against women in the ministry, so-called "critical race theory" in schools, and gay marriage. But it turns out, the monsters were in the house all along. This report comes as a surprise to no one who has paid a lick of attention to, well, anything within that past ten to twenty years. I mean, isn't it OBVIOUS that a super conservative church would turn out to be filled with child molesters? I thought this was so well known that it borders on parody. But I guess that's just because I run in circles that are suspicious of religion to begin with. I genuinely can't get my head around why anyone, least of all women, would want to be part of this. And yet. AND YET! 

There's that old joke: what's the difference between a cult and a religion? About a thousand years. Evangelical Christians act like Scientology is nutso and Mormonism is an affront to God. Yet, they believe a virgin gave birth to God's son...who is also God Himself...and that you have to believe in God's son so that you can be saved from a place God, in His omnipotency, could save you from Himself if He wanted to. Oh, and by the way, God is a God of love and justice but He will send you to eternal hell for finite sin (and for just not believing correctly). So...um, maybe they shouldn't judge is all I'm saying?

I'm preaching to the choir here. And I'm getting way outside the zone of a simple review of a TV show. But Under the Banner of Heaven really rustled my jimmies. Because here we are in 2022 and we, as a human race, have learned nothing. We still fall into these traps of believing in our own self-righteous bullshit. Myself included. But at least I'm not murdering or abusing children and hiding it behind God.

Grade: B