Dustin Lance Black first picked up a copy of "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith" nearly two decades ago. For someone who was raised in a conservative Mormon household but had since left the faith, it still felt dangerous.
"The church I grew up in encourages members not to dig into the past, to doubt one's doubts, to put your questions on a shelf," said Black. Jon Krakauer's propulsive nonfiction bestseller uses a horrific double murder committed by fundamentalist Mormon brothers in 1984 to explore the turbulent history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its renunciation of plural marriage in 1890 and the origins of radical polygamist sects in which child sexual abuse is widespread.
When "Under the Banner of Heaven" was published in 2003, the Mormon Church issued a full-throated denunciation of the book, calling it "not only a slap in the face of modern Latter-day Saints, but also a misunderstanding of religion in general."
