The Pioneers didn't cross the plains to become indistinguishable Americans. Under the direction of their Prophet, they built Zion in the desert. Somewhere along the way, their descendants traded their status as a "peculiar people" for acceptance as Americans.
It's time to become a people again.
In the 20th century, the Saints, mostly descended from those pioneers, successfully integrated into the American culture. They burst out of Utah and spread again across the United States. They became "normal," but at what cost?
A distinct people, with a unique covenant and destiny, became just another denomination, one that's not even accepted by many other Christians. The pioneer legacy became historical pageantry, a LARP, instead of a lived identity (and even the pageantry is fading). Zion is on the back burner. What matters most now is suburban respectability.
Most people will spend centuries to build what you already have:
A foundational narrative of persecution, exodus, and building your own promised land (Zion)
Geographic concentration in a sovereign state (yes Utah, you are a sovereign state)
Institutional infrastructure: your own schools and universities, charities, community organization
Endogamous patterns, distinctive practices that mark who's Us and who's Them
A covenant theology that sets you apart from generic American Christianity
You don't have to build something new. You just have to remember who you are.
Utah gives you something rare: the numbers and concentration to exercise real political power on your own behalf, as a people with agency instead of a voting bloc in someone else's coalition. The numbers are straightforward: strategic migration of 25,000-40,000 committed individuals could decisively shift state politics.
Deseret was a vision of a people building their own civilization on their own terms. That vision is still achievable, if enough are willing to live it.
Every people needs a homeland. Deseret is yours.
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