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Anthony McIntyre 📺The founder of Mormonism
was a crook, Joseph Smith.


Convicted in 1826 of being “a disorderly person and an impostor” after he had pleaded guilty to swindling people, he went on to manufacture a further scam, hiding it in plain sight. He informed listeners that he had been visited on three separate occasions by an angel called Moroni - maybe he was taking the piss out of the morons he was talking to, inventing a name suitable to their ilk. Smith simply announced that “I shall be to this generation a new Muhammad” and the daft disciples fell over themselves to fall into it. 

Smith won over devotees who opted to study the new faith with eyes wide shut. Mormonism is a salutary lesson in how easily the gullible and the credulous can be taken in if some nonsense is either whispered to them or said to come from a magic book. In the words of Christopher Hitchens, Mormonism raises questions 'concerning what happens when a plain racket turns into a serious religion before our eyes'.

Cults are not just religious. It was said that Workers Revolutionary Party leader Gerry Healey used to screw the wives of university professors and then their daughters, telling them that it was crucial that they satisfy his sexual needs . . . but only for the good of the party. Tom Hartley must sure be glad Gerry Adams never asked to ride him.

When Joseph Smith tired of the wife, and wanted to shag around, he made up a yarn about having received a divine message from 'Heavenly Father' which threatened death and eternal damnation to those unfortunate wives who would not acquiesce in the philandering. After Smith was shot dead in jail, where he belonged, he was succeeded as President of the Church by another randy reverend, Brigham Young, who went on to acquire fifty six wives and sire fifty seven children. Thus, polygamy, the great Mormon orgy, was born. 

Adapted from Jon Krakauer's non-fiction book of the same name, Under The Banner Of Heaven is a seven part unnerving crime drama. It will probably be even more suspenseful to those who had not previously read the book or were familiar with the Lafferty family, of which two siblings were murderous cutthroats, Dan and Ron.  Dan was simply a paedophile who wanted a religious excuse to rape his underage stepdaughters.

The drama opens up with a visit to a house in East Rockwell by Detective Jeb Pyre, a devout member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. As attending officer, he conducted a survey of a murder scene seemingly plucked from the bowels of hell. A twenty four year old mother, Brenda Wright Lafferty, and her baby daughter, Erica, both had their throats slashed. A heavily bloodstained man approaches the house and is ordered at gunpoint to get on the ground. A suspect in their grip, the investigation proper has begun. 'Brother' Jeb Pyre and his partner, Paiute native American Bill Taba, made up the posse now on the trail of the killers.

The suspect, Allen Lafferty, is the husband  of the murdered woman and father of the slain child. He protests his innocence and urges the cops to look for biblical type characters with beards. Seems all too easy to blame the old crazies, and Taba tells the man in his custody as much. 

During his interrogation Allen Lafferty claims to have left the LDS Church and is now a fundamentalist. The LDS Church denies the existence of any such thing as fundies. Like the Catholic Church in Ireland up until recent decades, but no longer, the hierarchy in the Church of the Latter Day Saints felt it could bully its way into having people accept that the reputation of the institution was more important to protect than any concept of justice. Heavenly Father would sort it all out in the eternal kingdom, just leave decisions about earthly matters in the hands of the Church elders. As far as the bishops and prophets in the Church were concerned, the police and courts could take a hike.

A frightening story about religious charlatans described as people who heard their own wishes and desires, then called them god to bully others into giving them what they wanted. Brenda Wright Lafferty was an independent woman and the men who wanted many wives resented her giving moral support to their original wives. Independent women might as well have been the devil incarnate in East Rockwell. Not vastly different from other areas of Christianity where men take the attitude of your body - my choice.

One mild irritant for the viewer familiar with Lodge 49 is that once they have met Dud as Dan Lafferty they will continue to see Dud throughout this series no matter how different the role of Dan is from Dud back in the Lodge. 

Mormonism, the religion of magic underwear.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Mormon Murder

Anthony McIntyre 📺The founder of Mormonism
was a crook, Joseph Smith.


Convicted in 1826 of being “a disorderly person and an impostor” after he had pleaded guilty to swindling people, he went on to manufacture a further scam, hiding it in plain sight. He informed listeners that he had been visited on three separate occasions by an angel called Moroni - maybe he was taking the piss out of the morons he was talking to, inventing a name suitable to their ilk. Smith simply announced that “I shall be to this generation a new Muhammad” and the daft disciples fell over themselves to fall into it. 

Smith won over devotees who opted to study the new faith with eyes wide shut. Mormonism is a salutary lesson in how easily the gullible and the credulous can be taken in if some nonsense is either whispered to them or said to come from a magic book. In the words of Christopher Hitchens, Mormonism raises questions 'concerning what happens when a plain racket turns into a serious religion before our eyes'.

Cults are not just religious. It was said that Workers Revolutionary Party leader Gerry Healey used to screw the wives of university professors and then their daughters, telling them that it was crucial that they satisfy his sexual needs . . . but only for the good of the party. Tom Hartley must sure be glad Gerry Adams never asked to ride him.

When Joseph Smith tired of the wife, and wanted to shag around, he made up a yarn about having received a divine message from 'Heavenly Father' which threatened death and eternal damnation to those unfortunate wives who would not acquiesce in the philandering. After Smith was shot dead in jail, where he belonged, he was succeeded as President of the Church by another randy reverend, Brigham Young, who went on to acquire fifty six wives and sire fifty seven children. Thus, polygamy, the great Mormon orgy, was born. 

Adapted from Jon Krakauer's non-fiction book of the same name, Under The Banner Of Heaven is a seven part unnerving crime drama. It will probably be even more suspenseful to those who had not previously read the book or were familiar with the Lafferty family, of which two siblings were murderous cutthroats, Dan and Ron.  Dan was simply a paedophile who wanted a religious excuse to rape his underage stepdaughters.

The drama opens up with a visit to a house in East Rockwell by Detective Jeb Pyre, a devout member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. As attending officer, he conducted a survey of a murder scene seemingly plucked from the bowels of hell. A twenty four year old mother, Brenda Wright Lafferty, and her baby daughter, Erica, both had their throats slashed. A heavily bloodstained man approaches the house and is ordered at gunpoint to get on the ground. A suspect in their grip, the investigation proper has begun. 'Brother' Jeb Pyre and his partner, Paiute native American Bill Taba, made up the posse now on the trail of the killers.

The suspect, Allen Lafferty, is the husband  of the murdered woman and father of the slain child. He protests his innocence and urges the cops to look for biblical type characters with beards. Seems all too easy to blame the old crazies, and Taba tells the man in his custody as much. 

During his interrogation Allen Lafferty claims to have left the LDS Church and is now a fundamentalist. The LDS Church denies the existence of any such thing as fundies. Like the Catholic Church in Ireland up until recent decades, but no longer, the hierarchy in the Church of the Latter Day Saints felt it could bully its way into having people accept that the reputation of the institution was more important to protect than any concept of justice. Heavenly Father would sort it all out in the eternal kingdom, just leave decisions about earthly matters in the hands of the Church elders. As far as the bishops and prophets in the Church were concerned, the police and courts could take a hike.

A frightening story about religious charlatans described as people who heard their own wishes and desires, then called them god to bully others into giving them what they wanted. Brenda Wright Lafferty was an independent woman and the men who wanted many wives resented her giving moral support to their original wives. Independent women might as well have been the devil incarnate in East Rockwell. Not vastly different from other areas of Christianity where men take the attitude of your body - my choice.

One mild irritant for the viewer familiar with Lodge 49 is that once they have met Dud as Dan Lafferty they will continue to see Dud throughout this series no matter how different the role of Dan is from Dud back in the Lodge. 

Mormonism, the religion of magic underwear.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
Anthony McIntyre television review

2 comments:

  1. Barry Gilheany12:33 PM, August 15, 2024

    Fascinating and horrifying story of the birth of a religious cult which did not need a Holy Book to indoctrinate it's followers, Anthony.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gavin Casey3:53 PM, August 16, 2024

    Very engaging and compelling drama. 'Murder Among The Mormons' is another based on real crime connected with the cult's origin stories.

    ReplyDelete

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