<P> Krakauer examines events in Latter Day Saint history and compares them to modern - day FLDS doctrine (and other minority versions of Mormonism, such as the Crossfield School of the Prophets). He examines the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre during the Utah War, in which Mormons and some local Paiute Indians rounded up and murdered approximately 120 members of the Baker--Fancher party of emigrants passing through their territory . The Mormons went to great lengths to conceal their part in the massacre (including dressing as the Paiute and painting their faces in similar fashion). The Civil War interrupted investigations of the events, and no one was indicted until 1874, when nine men were charged . For nearly two decades the falsehood held that the massacre was due solely to the Paiute . The only person ever convicted in the affair was John D. Lee, a member of the LDS Church . He was convicted and executed by the state in 1877 for his role in the crime . </P> <P> Krakauer cites information gleaned from several interviews with Dan Lafferty and former and current members of the Crossfield School of the Prophets, as well as other fundamentalist Mormons . He refers to several histories about the formation of Mormonism to tie the origins of the religion to the modern iterations of both the church and the fundamentalists . </P> <P> The title of the book is drawn from an 1880 address by John Taylor, the third president of the LDS Church, defending the practice of plural marriage: </P> <P> "God is greater than the United States, and when the Government conflicts with heaven, we will be ranged under the banner of heaven against the Government . The United States says we cannot marry more than one wife . God says different". </P>

Mormon response to under the banner of heaven