One interesting tale from the life of Joseph Smith — founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — is of a woman who, when dealing with disparaging gossip, sought advice from the prophet. Reportedly, Joseph let the woman know that whenever he confronted rumors about himself that he considered a falsehood that he would scour his own behavior for any kernel of truth in it. In time, he would find something that gave rise to the rumor and would seek to correct it.
Much has been said about the dubious historical accuracy and the caricatural representation of members of the LDS Church within the “Under the Banner of Heaven” book and TV series. I would guess that I wasn’t the only one who was left scratching my head when the fictional Jeb Pyre appeared to be frightened of eating french fries.
And yet, for all the critiques I have, most of which I believe are well founded and honest, there may be kernels of truth that series director Dustin Black and book author Jon Krakauer are trying to say, even if they take several artistic liberties and make several egregious errors to do so.
For example, although I don’t agree with the sentiment that my faith “breeds dangerous men,” there are special cases of violent religious extremism such as the Lafferty family, (and the more recent Chad and Lori Daybell case) that, at least to me, seem important to consider when assessing the validity of the underlying thesis of Krakauer’s and Black’s narrative.
Although these cases are anomalies, rare and often unpredictable, they are also so heinous as to be unacceptable, an extremism LDS President Dallin H. Oaks recently warned church members to avoid. Moreover, other themes such as intimate partner violence, misogyny, alienating deconversion and racism are important topics.
Indeed, there are things each member can do to make communities safer, an idea President Russell M. Nelson echoed when he encouraged each member to “root out racism.” In both the series and book, “Under the Banner of Heaven” encourages a reflection on violence, racism and misogyny, each of which may exist, at least in some form, in some of the church’s members.
On the other hand, Black and Krakauer are prone to misrepresent psychological science. As someone who has published research on both intimate partner violence and religious deconversion, intimate partner violence and alienating deconversion are not simple phenomena that can be boiled down to a single cause as Black and Krakauer are prone to do i.e., that faith “breeds dangerous men.”
For example, what causes intimate partner violence is often mired in ambiguity, and there are many complicating factors. Moreover, Krakauer’s diagnosis of Joseph Smith as a narcissist by DSM guidelines is an overstep into boundaries of expertise he does not have, and any qualified expert would be treading on shaky ethical grounds to diagnose a modern disorder on a man who lived over 150 years ago.
Not only this, but even if Joseph Smith did possess narcissistic traits as Krakauer claims, he must contend with research on adaptive narcissism (a narcissism that may be helpful and even beneficial to society), or other work that suggests that certain psychopathic traits (i.e., boldness) are markers of good presidential leaders. This is all to say, if we want, as a society, to reduce violence, extremism and prejudice, then I think a more intellectually honest discussion is warranted, one that doesn’t scapegoat a church for the heinous acts of a few of its members.
Indeed, everyone, the believer and non-believer alike, should ascribe to Oliver Cromwell’s reasoning, “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.” And I can, at least for myself, carefully reflect on the ways posited by Black and Krakauer to improve myself and, in a small way, my community.
On the other hand, it should be said that if Black and Krakauer want members of the church to ruminate on their views, they must also show, and consistently demonstrate, a willingness to adjust their preconceptions of the church and of its members, especially in cases where they have blatantly misrepresented them and their history.
H. Dorian Hatch
H. Dorian Hatch was born and raised in Utah and graduated from Brigham Young University. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the Ohio State University, where he studies personality disorders including narcissism.
