Pioneer Day
So here we are again: Pioneer Day weekend. And once again, I won’t be celebrating.
Before I continue, let me give some background for the uninitiated: in the 1830s, Latter-day Saints were a persecuted minority (whereas now, everybody loves us, right? Right? [crickets chirping]). Seriously, though, the Latter-day Saints were intent on building a Zion society—not a Utopia per se, but about as close as we fallible humans can get. Anyone was welcome to join the Saints in this endeavor, regardless of religious persuasion. However, the non-LdS takers were few, indubitably because of the stigma associated with the Church of Christ and its much-maligned members.
About a year after the Church was organized in 1830, Church leaders moved its headquarters from the Palmyra, New York, area to Kirtland, Ohio. Shortly thereafter, the Church set up a second center in Jackson county, Missouri. But within just a few years, mob violence had become so significant that the Saints were driven out of Ohio, and membership in the Church was actually declared a capital offense, punishable by death, in the state of Missouri. The Saints thus relocated to a swamp in Illinois and, after suffering through a winter in makeshift tents and a spring of malaria, finally managed to drain the swamp and build the second-largest city in Illinois, Nauvoo.
Nauvoo was certainly prosperous, but the Saints’ numbers did nothing to placate the mobs, especially since they tended to vote as a bloc. So, it was only a matter of time before tensions mounted again. A mob shot and murdered the President and Assistant President of the Church, Joseph and Hyrum Smith; and within 18 months, the rest of the Saints were driven out of Illinois—again, in the dead of winter. It was so cold that the Mississippi River was frozen solid, so what few of them actually had wagons could simply drive across into Iowa.
After a year and a half “in the wilderness,” as it were, the Saints finally arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley—and began constructing Salt Lake City—on 24 July 1847. By 1857, 24 July had become a holiday on par with Independence Day, and with good reason: on that day, the Saints finally won their independence from the ironically tyrannical government of the United States of America.
Fast forward 155 years. The Saints still make up a majority of the population of Utah, and Pioneer Day is still celebrated as vigorously as it was in 1857, perhaps even more so. There’s a “Days of ’47 Parade” in Salt Lake City, with the President of the Church generally riding on a float (think temporary Popemobile, without the bulletproof glass and stuff). It’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s… completely irrelevant to anyone outside of Utah.
I remember when I was in the Missionary Training Center. We had a book called Spanish for Missionaries that was supposed to teach us how to teach the gospel in Spanish (as if that were actually the name of a language, but I digress). Part of the book dealt with cultural differences, and the one line I remember was something along the lines of: “Some hymns in the Spanish hymnal retain the original music, but with lyrics significantly different from their English counterparts. Come, Come Ye Saints, for example, has become Santos Venid, since most Spanish-speaking Church members have nothing to do with the early Latter-day Saint Pioneers.” I remember reading this and thinking, “You’re right. And neither do most English-speaking Church members.”
The point is that, if the Utahans want to celebrate Pioneer Day, more power to them. The Pioneers’ arrival marks the founding of their state, and that’s a great thing to celebrate. But by that logic, Hoosiers should be celebrating the founding of Indiana, or perhaps even the arrival of Latter-day Saint Pioneers in our state. And what of the preceding Latter-day Saint settlements? We don’t celebrate the Saints’ arrival in Illinois or Missouri; we don’t even celebrate the founding of the Church! So what’s so special about a few advance wagons arriving in Utah? Well, frankly, nothing.
And so, another year has passed. And once again, I won’t be celebrating Pioneer Day. I guess if my ward wants to have a cookout, perhaps I’ll show up for some free hot dogs; after all, they did build the new meetinghouse within easy view of my house. Otherwise, though, I’ll take my Fourth of July, thankyouverymuch, and enjoy that with my family.
Before I continue, let me give some background for the uninitiated: in the 1830s, Latter-day Saints were a persecuted minority (whereas now, everybody loves us, right? Right? [crickets chirping]). Seriously, though, the Latter-day Saints were intent on building a Zion society—not a Utopia per se, but about as close as we fallible humans can get. Anyone was welcome to join the Saints in this endeavor, regardless of religious persuasion. However, the non-LdS takers were few, indubitably because of the stigma associated with the Church of Christ and its much-maligned members.
About a year after the Church was organized in 1830, Church leaders moved its headquarters from the Palmyra, New York, area to Kirtland, Ohio. Shortly thereafter, the Church set up a second center in Jackson county, Missouri. But within just a few years, mob violence had become so significant that the Saints were driven out of Ohio, and membership in the Church was actually declared a capital offense, punishable by death, in the state of Missouri. The Saints thus relocated to a swamp in Illinois and, after suffering through a winter in makeshift tents and a spring of malaria, finally managed to drain the swamp and build the second-largest city in Illinois, Nauvoo.
Nauvoo was certainly prosperous, but the Saints’ numbers did nothing to placate the mobs, especially since they tended to vote as a bloc. So, it was only a matter of time before tensions mounted again. A mob shot and murdered the President and Assistant President of the Church, Joseph and Hyrum Smith; and within 18 months, the rest of the Saints were driven out of Illinois—again, in the dead of winter. It was so cold that the Mississippi River was frozen solid, so what few of them actually had wagons could simply drive across into Iowa.
After a year and a half “in the wilderness,” as it were, the Saints finally arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley—and began constructing Salt Lake City—on 24 July 1847. By 1857, 24 July had become a holiday on par with Independence Day, and with good reason: on that day, the Saints finally won their independence from the ironically tyrannical government of the United States of America.
Fast forward 155 years. The Saints still make up a majority of the population of Utah, and Pioneer Day is still celebrated as vigorously as it was in 1857, perhaps even more so. There’s a “Days of ’47 Parade” in Salt Lake City, with the President of the Church generally riding on a float (think temporary Popemobile, without the bulletproof glass and stuff). It’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s… completely irrelevant to anyone outside of Utah.
I remember when I was in the Missionary Training Center. We had a book called Spanish for Missionaries that was supposed to teach us how to teach the gospel in Spanish (as if that were actually the name of a language, but I digress). Part of the book dealt with cultural differences, and the one line I remember was something along the lines of: “Some hymns in the Spanish hymnal retain the original music, but with lyrics significantly different from their English counterparts. Come, Come Ye Saints, for example, has become Santos Venid, since most Spanish-speaking Church members have nothing to do with the early Latter-day Saint Pioneers.” I remember reading this and thinking, “You’re right. And neither do most English-speaking Church members.”
The point is that, if the Utahans want to celebrate Pioneer Day, more power to them. The Pioneers’ arrival marks the founding of their state, and that’s a great thing to celebrate. But by that logic, Hoosiers should be celebrating the founding of Indiana, or perhaps even the arrival of Latter-day Saint Pioneers in our state. And what of the preceding Latter-day Saint settlements? We don’t celebrate the Saints’ arrival in Illinois or Missouri; we don’t even celebrate the founding of the Church! So what’s so special about a few advance wagons arriving in Utah? Well, frankly, nothing.
And so, another year has passed. And once again, I won’t be celebrating Pioneer Day. I guess if my ward wants to have a cookout, perhaps I’ll show up for some free hot dogs; after all, they did build the new meetinghouse within easy view of my house. Otherwise, though, I’ll take my Fourth of July, thankyouverymuch, and enjoy that with my family.
But if the Saints didn't make it to Utah and get the freedom to continue the Church we would not have the blessing of the Church today. I think it's a celebration that they had the courage and faith to stand for what they believed in. Yeah, it's not much for those outside of Utah... Maybe we should make it be. I think we should all take off work! I felt the same way until I got to enjoy pioneer day in Utah and to learn more about it. Maybe it's just sentimental to me though.
ReplyDeleteI get what you’re saying, Jessica, and I really do respect what those people did. But to me, when we celebrate the Pioneers’ arrival in Utah, aren’t we implicitly ignoring those who paved the way for them? What of the Latter-day Saints who died in New York? Ohio? Missouri? Illinois? Without those TRUE pioneers, the Utah pioneers wouldn’t have had a Church to protect. (Joseph Smith Jr., for example, was not among those pioneers—nor was Jesus Christ, which I think is an even bigger deal.)
ReplyDeleteWhere is the celebration of the Saints’ arrival in Illinois? in Missouri? in Ohio? What about the organization of the Church? the morning of the First Visitation? the Day of Pentecost at the Kirtland Temple? The martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum? The Haun’s Mill Massacre? And just as importantly, what of the many, many events found in the Standard Works?
Again, I really do understand why it would be important to Utahans; it’s the founding of their state. But to me, it seems like Pioneer Day is a holiday designed to take the focus away from Christ and His Church and put it on the great state of Utah. Take yesterday’s Sacrament Meeting, for example: in our ward, we sang a single Sacrament hymn worshipping our Lord and Savior, sandwiched between three other hymns worshipping of a bunch of random nineteenth-century Christians. It’s no wonder so many people come away from our Sunday services thinking we worship the prophets or our ancestors.
If nothing else, I think Christ would be extremely hurt by us demoting Him, like that. :-(