Mormon Inquiry

The meanings of Zion

Wednesday July 29, 2009

Categories: Mormon culture

This is the third post on Richard L. Bushman's Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2008). [See Part 1 and Part 2.] In Chapter Three, Bushman reviews the several meanings of the term "Zion" in LDS doctrine and thinking.

The Mormon sense of Zion has no real parallels in Protestant thought. In a general sense, Zion refers to Mormon community and society, a larger concept than just the LDS Church as a religious institution. Here's how Bushman explains it.

From the beginning, Mormons have actively sought unity. They aspire to be a people, thinking of themselves as a society as much as a church. Their common ground goes beyond belief and worship to work, education, family, and business. This comprehensiveness goes back to their origins, when Joseph Smith first organized the church.

I suspect what Bushman gently terms "comprehensiveness" is what rubs some religious contemporaries the wrong way about Mormonism, giving rise to recurrent charges of being cultish or un-American. But comprehensiveness also describes the earliest religious settlers in 17th-century New England. You can't get more American than the Pilgrims, who also thought of themselves as trying to establish a model religious community.

The early quest for Mormon unity led to experiments in economic communalism. These did not go well, and by 1839 the attempt had been quietly abandoned. While Zion or the related term "Zion society" is still applied by some to these short-term economic experiments, the terms at present are more often used to refer to principles of economic justice and compassion that are realized through service to others, sacrifice for the benefit of those in need, and modest living. At present, Zion means something like this: applying the principles of charitable communal living within the free market, private property economy of the 21st century.

But the Zion concept doesn't simply refer to a set of principles. The LDS Church makes it a program, and a remarkably successful one. Here's Bushman again:

Out of the early Zion principles also evolved the Mormon sense of how to care for the poor. The scriptural condemnation of inequality in the early years was less an attack on the systemic inequalities of capitalism than an admonition to watch over the needy. In the twentieth century, the consecration principle took the form of a welfare program begun during the Great Depression to provide work and sustenance for poor church members. The church now owns farms, canning plants, and manufacturing facilities where the poor work producing the goods they need to subsist.

In just the last few years, the LDS Church has also expanded the scope of its humanitarian aid efforts outside the LDS community. Again, it's not just a wish, it's a program: Mormon Helping Hands. The website explanation even includes a 14-page manual telling local units how to make it work.

One could cite scripture or Conference talks for a more doctrinally oriented summary of the term Zion, but I think the LDS Welfare Program (to benefit Latter-day Saints in need) and the Helping Hands program (to channel service toward worthwhile projects in local communities) are themselves the best expression of what Zion means in practice to modern Latter-day Saints.

I'll wind up with some general comments on Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction. It is a short and very readable introduction for the non-LDS reader, but also full of insightful descriptions and observations for the LDS reader. It is certainly worth picking up and reading if you run across it at your local library or bookstore.

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Comments
New Age Cowboy
August 11, 2009 9:28 AM

Dave, I really admire the above mentioned aspects of your church! I never new that LDS folk tried economic communalism: "The early quest for Mormon unity led to experiments in economic communalism. These did not go well, and by 1839 the attempt had been quietly abandoned." Very interesting!
Blessed be!

Bill Kilpatrick
August 12, 2009 10:27 PM

The Mormon concept of Zion is a Christian version of what Judaism has been striving to achieve for the last four thousand years. It's all about the creation of a community with standards, where people are supposed to care about each other, where everybody - high and low - has a job to do, a contribution to make, towards the happiness of all. I have a low tolerance for fairy tales and theological mumbo jumbo, but the concept of Zion is a large part of how Mormons make the most out of daily life. It's a good concept.

nettie munson
August 28, 2009 3:45 AM

i am a member of the mormon church although i guessi am a outgoing member since myhusband and myself have been put on a do not call do not contact list. you are a good mormon if you have 10 children and if you fit in one of their little clicks. now the previous president of the church did not run the church this way, he did not push people out of the church like the current president and his other men do. if you live in fresno and are a mormon you might as well find another church togo to . most mormons are loving and helping but not the fresno 7th ward. that ward needs to be shut down. oh and oh course women are required to walk behind men , and have no standing what so ever in this releigion, not too christian.

Mali
September 3, 2009 1:02 PM

I'm sorry you had this experience Nettie. Just to set it straight, this church doesn't teach it's members that women have to walk behind men and that you have to have a lot of kids. I've held several leadership callings as young women's pres., enrichment leader and the like, and never once was I belittled by men. Also my husband and I have decided that we don't want too many kids- 2 or 3 will do- and that is a decision only between my husband and I and the Lord. I've never been pressured in church to have more. Though some people in this faith may not be nice or open-minded doesn't mean that the religion is that way too. There's probably people like in that every church but that doesn't mean it their religion is that way too. Actually my family is having some issues w/ a leader in our ward so we've started to attend another ward. Well, these are just my thoughts..

Mark W
September 10, 2009 1:42 AM

Nettie, my wife and I were in a ward like that once, and a VISITOR got up and called the congregation to repentance. One minute I was half asleep, then I hear "You people are so vain!" I sat up in my chair and whispered to my wife, "This is gonna be good!"

That's my favorite part of church. Once a month, it's an open mike, and so long as you frame it as "this I believe" and toss in a scripture for good measure; you're good to go! Prep your sermon sister!

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About Mormon Inquiry

This blog is no longer updated and is closed for comments. We welcome your comments about Mormonism in our Latter-day Saints forums.

David Banack is an attorney living in Jackson Hole. He joined the LDS Church at age 15 and later served a two-year LDS mission to France and Switzerland. He has lived up and down the West Coast, as well as in Fiji, Samoa, Sweden, Utah, and now Wyoming. Dave has been running the Mormon Inquiry site discussing LDS and Christian issues since 2003. He is a website editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and also participates at the LDS weblog Times and Seasons. The views expressed on this blog are his own.

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