Dialogue, Volume 25, Number 2 - Dialogue – A Journal of Mormon ...

Glimmers and Glitches in Zion
Brian J. Fogg
AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD MORMON can tell you a lot about Zion. At least I
could. In response to Sister Jensen's questions in Targeteer class, I'd
raise my hand to give my rote answer: "Zion is a people of one heart
and one mind. They dwell in righteousness and have no poor among
them." I probably didn't understand words like dwell and among, but
my voice rang through the classroom with assurance and authority.
Answers about Zion came easily then. But now that I've mastered
dwell and among, I find the other concepts — like one heart and no poor —
even more difficult. Those words cling to the back of my throat and
march only haltingly off my tongue. Still, I cannot deny the ideas are
there, ideas about a perfect society. How could the joyful songs of Zion
not resonate through my veins? Zion is in my blood.
We will sing of Zion, Kingdom of our God.
Zion is the pure in heart, Those who seek the Savior's part.
Zion soon in all the world Will rise to meet her God.
(Hymn #47)
On every branch of my family tree, I've got what Mormons might
call a "pioneer heritage." Five generations ago my ancestors left their
homes and earthly belongings to follow Brigham Young and trek West
with the Saints. Once they arrived, the pioneers tried to build a new
society. They tamed the Salt Lake Valley. They built a temple. They
practiced polygamy.
Today much of that seems fuzzy to me, like the bedtime stories my
mother would read me from pioneer diaries. Sitting on the edge of my
B.J. FOGG is a founder and a former publisher of Student Review, BYU's unofficial weekly
magazine.