Under the Banner of Heaven

[elfdream]

There is a book called The Climb which tells the same story of the 96 Everest Climb but it is from the point of view of the Russian Climber. A different tale from Krakauer's. I think they both told the truth as they remembered it but considering their brains were starved for oxygen who kows what really happened.

I think I'm a fairly resonable human being.

[pastor's wife]

I read Anatoli Boukreev's "The Climb" as well as "Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest" by Beck Weathers. Krakauer's book is definitely the most well-written and compelling though it was very interesting to read other perspectives as well.

"Under the Banner of Heaven" - This quote started ch. 15:

Quote:The threat of evil was projected onto others . . . Hence, at Nauvoo the innocent children of God realized their identity through their struggle against the evil followers of Satan, who dominated American society everywhere except in the city of the Saints.

The problem, of course, with this kind of dichotomous myth is that, for the people who hold it, guilt and innocence become matters of belief, not evidence.

- John E. Hallwas and Roger D. Launius Cultures in Conflict

I thought that was such an interesting point and so true in situations with which we are more familiar, such as pastors or "upstanding" church members accused of crimes. The congregation so often assumes that those people just ARE holy that the actual evidence matters nothing to them. Completely unreasonable.

[Fishsticks]

I read "Under the Banner of Heaven" several years ago. It made me so mad! There was another book written a few years later (not sure if it's the same author) dealing with the rise and fall/capture of the FLDS dictator Warren Jeffs that I really enjoyed. I forget what the title was but I enjoyed reading of the criminal brought to justice.