Religious Intolerance 2022Three years ago, I wrote an article about religious intolerance. My premise was that America had actually never been that religiously tolerant, that today religion, Christianity in particular, was the one area where intolerance was still acceptable, and that those who often cried for the most tolerance could be the most intolerant. I used the fact that The Book of Mormon won a Tony Award as evidence, as well as how Hollywood continues to criticize Christians while attacking any who dares say anything negative about Muslims or Jews, let alone anyone of a different race or sexual orientation. Upon seeing a preview of FX’s latest crime thriller “Under the Banner of Heaven,” I though it’s time to maybe reexamine religion in America amongst this new culture of political correctness. What I found is that history has not changed and that Hollywood has once again used a similar scapegoat to attack those who believe in a God.Let me start by saying I am a fan of Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, the two books he wrote before Under the Banner, are both amazing reads. It’s his fourth book where he turns from his themes of exploring and often losing to nature towards religion and violence that seems unfamiliar. The premise of Under the Banner of Heaven is that religious people are irrational and, as irrational and fanatical people, they commit irrational violent acts. As with the musical The Book of Mormon, FX is targeting an easy sect of Christianity, one that even other Christians are Ok seeing attacked. While this particular story deals with a polygamous splinter group of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Krakauer’s premise is for all believers of God, as he wrote in Chapter Six of Under the Banner of Heaven, “All religious belief is a function of nonrational faith. And faith, by its very definition, tends to be impervious to intellectual argument or academic criticism.”The TV adaption has not been released and so I do not know how closely it stays true to the book, but the book looks at the 1984 murders committed by two brothers belonging to the FLDS. Krakauer believes it was their fanatical devotion to God that allowed them to justify their cruel actions. As part of his evidence, he examines the history of the Mormon Church, which he links with violence and ...
