Disclaimers: If you will be offended by what I have written don’t read it. This contains anti-LDS Leadership attitudes and a new way of looking at the progression of The LDS Church in these latter days.
I won’t begin with “thus saith the Lord” because this is an observation. This is merely a different perspective. The Lord has given me this perspective and wants me to share it.
Zion began as an unknown. It then became known as Independence, Missouri. It then became a state of mind that somehow has a connection to your heart and your purity. When Joseph Smith wrote that Zion is the pure in heart he meant real people. They understood the prophet and anxiously waited his telling them where these pure in heart would build the Kingdom of Zion. For these pure in heart Zion was a physical place that they would get as an inheritance. Joseph didn’t tell them that they would have to wait until the Millennium to receive this inheritance because it was on its way. To further persuade the people of Zion to understand the importance of place in Zion Joseph moved East to Illinois and built a “pattern of Zion.” This pattern, which is a city layout and new ordinances in a new temple, has become for members of the LDS Church today as special something, akin to a warm fuzzy feeling that constitutes being pure in heart.
Life on the frontier as a Mormon Pioneer was full of physical symbols of attributes of God. Consecrating your personal belongings, following the commandments of God when it included hardship and losing the things you held most precious, and testing the prophet’s words and questioning him directly for the will of God were part of joining Zion. When Joseph said that Zion is the pure in heart he meant a gathering of saints. Where the saints gather in the name of the Lord there is Zion. Gathering has always been a part of Zionism. The creation of Zion and the principles that build it are based in gathering. When the LDS Church de-emphasized gathering they struck the final blow on the concepts Joseph Smith taught and espoused as “Zion.”
The changing of Zion was a slow transition. Like any early member would tell you their church changed at the speed of a horse over many miles. When the prophet was around they had truth laid before them. When he was gone they had other people trying to decide what the prophet meant when he said this or that. When the prophet was killed and his brother also, Zion was left in the hands of people who had a plan but not the vision of a prophet. Brigham Young took the church deep into the wilderness and claimed an area for Zion that encompasses most of the western states. Zion was no longer a city of gathering. Zion was a city state that would make sure no one (not even the U.S Government) would have the right to tell them to leave.
Brigham Young took the temple plan and created a neo-gothic temple that rivaled English Cathedrals. He set himself up the king of Zion. He was the saint’s protector and spiritual leader that could have as many wives as he wanted. Zion had gone from a Missouri Holy Land to a Western Kingdom with all the trappings of a trader city-state. Joseph’s dream of a united people building up Zion from the Center Place out to the Lamanites and abroad became a merchant city-state that extended its boarders to the far reaches of the known land before building up the Center Stake. The Center Place had been converted to the Right Place and Zion forever changed in the hearts of the LDS children of men.
Zion in transition didn’t slow down it picked up the pace. By 1890 Zionism was no longer the 1950s Israel Colonizing effort it used to be in 1850 but a cutting back on claims to the point that fundamental aspects of Zion had to be changed for admittance into the union that was threatening to close them in at every side. Zion now faced more than ripping out its center, but the constricting of its borders by the laws of the land. Resistance was futile. The U.S. Government was not about to let plural marriage affect its manifest destiny. Either the Mormon’s changed or political mob actions would take the place of physical mob actions of earlier years. The U.S. Government was already upset that Indians were being made friends to the Mormons. The fact that Mormon’s didn’t allow Blacks to hold church office was their only saving grace. Believe it or not Southern mentality still ran strong in Congress and The Senate. In the corridors of Congress beliefs were still shared about how much power the Blacks had. Opinions could be swayed on the plural marriage issue only by compromises in other areas. Many senators really didn’t care how many wives a man had in their hearts. Publicly, they could use the horror people had about the white demons of Utah. Privately, they had mistresses and didn’t give a moral hoot how a man chose to interact with women.
By the early part of the Twentieth Century Zion was blessed with prosperity and growth. Gathering had served its purpose and populated a wasteland with industrious immigrants. Now Zion was faced with a new threat. Years of isolation from the evils of men were taking its toll on Zion. Utah had fought the boomtown vices and won more times than it didn’t. People were taught that Zion existed as a bastion against immorality and not a bastion to all nations of a community preparing for Christ’s coming. Utah had temples to the North and to the South. Zion was Utah and the Gentiles were everyone against Utah and her institutions.
Change came next to Zion in the education of her saints. The LDS Church now was growing to the point that keeping up its many educational endeavors was too constraining to expanding of her borders. Zion’s pure in heart need not be educated by the Church. The bureaucracy of government was better equipped to educate the daughters of Zion. The gathering idea of Zion was well on its way out. If you didn’t need a church institution to teach the people of Zion her principles then there is obviously no reason to gather in cities where this is done. Hyrum Smith’s boy had even built a Temple outside of the United States. The era of “Zion is wherever you are” was beginning to form in the minds and the hearts of her children.
The rest is history. Now Zion is in my heart. It is a lovely little place that I go to when I feel threatened by the precepts of man. As the early saints gathered to Zion for protection, community, sharing, instruction I can gather all my righteousness, peer validations, I am one of the chosen sharing and general conference instruction into my heart and call it Zion. Zion was struggled and fought for by a people I never knew. I turn my thoughts to my pioneer forefathers but my heart is far from them. I know that Zion is more sublime than a mere place. I am in Zion in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am in Zion in Saudi Arabia. It doesn’t matter that the law of the land is more important in my sight than the laws of Zion. I prefer a community of lawyers who guard my money to saints who want to sustain their very lives with my income. I will give to the PEF and feel like I have first sought for the Kingdom of Zion then my riches when the reverse is true.
Enter Nauvoo, Illinois into the picture. What a quaint little place! This is the very place Joseph Smith himself built Zion. Look at the pretty trees and fields. What beautiful flowers they have got here. This is truly a monument to the memory of Joseph Smith. Never mind that he always wanted to build Zion in Missouri. They were bad there. They wanted to kill him! Never mind that he actually died in Illinois. We don’t need a temple in Independence. We have a temple prison there close anyway.
Zion has been forgotten. Her lands are filled with wild beasts and farmers who don’t care about the religious significance of the lands that they now own and were taken from Zion’s children less than 200 years ago. The Jewish nation is claiming lands for their own that was taken 2000 years ago. The LDS Church now has a definite campaign against the building up of Joseph’s Zion. In the spirit of “Every member a missionary, Just Do It, and Every member hold a temple recommend” The making of Zion into Zionland that every curious member should see has been under construction for years. The glossy brochures, the young missionary women, the beautiful grounds do nothing to the Spirit of Zion in Missouri than reiterate the fact that these monuments are the gravestones of Zion.
Take Nauvoo into consideration. The LDS Church is rebuilding the jewel at the river’s bend. If there is enough members in the area to justify this wonderful donation to the LDS Church it doesn’t change the fact that prominent members can designate where to build a temple. The LDS Church is in a temple building frenzy. But this isn’t the big concern in the building of Zion. The concern is the motivation for the memorials, the upkeep money, and the Temple that Joseph built. There isn’t a pageant at Independence anymore. That would rival the growing importance of Nauvoo. The LDS Church is pouring money into stopping the inevitable. The City of Zion will be built in Independence, Missouri someday. Someday there will be a temple here. Someday there will be a temple in Far West. Zion’s children will once again be gathered on these beautiful hills. It might not be Church Approved but then again Joseph had a hard time getting something’s Church Approved. The building of Zion will take place despite Brigham Young’s yellow dog. It will be built despite Brother Woodruff and his edict on plural marriage. It will be built despite liberal interpretation of Joseph’s words and the editing of The Book of Mormon. The sun will rise on Zion someday and she will be beautiful.
