Oil and Vinegar

The Role of Friction in Forming Zion

Daniel Bartholomew.“Enmeshed.” November, 2017. Ink on paper.

I was raised in a home where store-bought salad dressing was verboten. My mother—ever the lover of an oil-and-vinegar concoction—regularly kept a mason jar of fresh vinaigrette on the top shelf of our refrigerator. Each time I opened the fridge, the mixture would rattle and I would see oil droplets swirl in a pool of vinegar. As I have grown older and have begun making my own vinaigrette, I now appreciate how much whisking is required to emulsify oil and vinegar. Because oil and vinegar naturally resist each other, a fair amount of effort is needed to bind the two together. In fact, it is the very friction of mixing that makes unity between oil and vinegar possible.

In a 2023 fireside, President Dallin H. Oaks spoke about his hope that we would live in a society where “love and unselfish assistance would transcend all boundaries of nation, creed and color.” That sounds a lot like Zion to me, but President Oaks did not finish there. He then boldly declared, “Jesus did not pray that His followers would be diverse. He prayed that they would be one.” With oneness as the goal, is it possible that diversity is actually integral to achieving it? While the mandate of Zion is unity, I believe that diversity plays an essential role in formulating Zion. Like the mixing of oil and vinegar, unity is found through friction. 

Diversity is embedded in the foundation of mortality. When God created the earth, he brought forth vast and deliberate differences in every creature and thing. The beauty and variance of the earth is a testament to God’s love of contrast. With that same love, God created each of us to be multifaceted. Like the push and pull of the earth’s ecosystems, we sometimes experience collision when we try to coexist. Differences in agendas, ideas, and perspectives can create division among us. Nevertheless, the Lord admonishes, “know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7). If diversity is for our benefit and experience, how can we both embrace diversity and heed President Oaks’ counsel to be one? 

Unity—Not Uniformity

The city of Enoch in the Book of Moses built a Zion community by being of “one heart and one mind” (Moses 7:18). The latter-day project of Zion began with the Lord’s command for everyone to “esteem his brother as himself” (D&C 38:24). To esteem is to respect, and the process of becoming of “one heart and one mind” begins with respecting those who differ from us. By virtue of God’s gift of agency, we are inclined to individuate and diversify. In carving out our own identities, we are engaging in the preliminary work of oneness. We need to be different so that we can choose to be one. Respect for others' differences within the walls of Zion creates unity, not uniformity. 

Daniel Bartholomew. “Ten.” June, 2017. Ink on paper.

In my observations, we Latter-day Saints still struggle with God’s instruction to respect others and their agency. A 2021 study exploring generational feelings towards religion found that Gen Z Latter-day Saints were more likely than other Christians to feel uncomfortable bringing their “whole selves” to church. This finding implies that our church culture might prize uniformity more than unity. When unity is the goal, all are accepted and cared for, regardless of what they bring to the table. God wants us to grow and stretch in our love for others, and participating in a church that allows for people to “come as they are” is one of the best ways to realize that goal. As Melissa Inouye aptly stated, “The Church is not a ‘solution’ for the ‘problem’ of diversity, but a preserve within which to practice it.” Compassion, kindness, and love are more sincerely cultivated when differences are brought to the forefront. It is through the complexities of diversity that we build deeper unity.

My ward in Northern Virginia has become a “preserve within which to practice,” a place for me and others to encounter the challenges and possibilities of diversity. Our Relief Society, for instance, is home to many who do not feel like they fit in a conventional ward. Some of these women are divorced, unmarried, married to someone outside the faith, or uninterested in marriage altogether. Because marriage is so central to our faith, discussions surrounding temple sealings can sometimes feel like threading an invisible needle. Occasionally the conversation may even take a confrontational turn. While the initial impulse in these situations is to turn away, what we have found as Relief Society sisters is that it is beneficial to disagree. One Sunday, I made a comment from my perspective regarding eternal marriage, and then two other women followed me with comments that contradicted mine. Because our Relief Society has grown comfortable with such discussion, I had not even noticed that there was a sincere disagreement between the other commenters and me. When those two women spoke, all I heard was the baring of souls. I was not worried—and neither were those who commented—about our difference of opinion. It did not matter that we disagreed because it was all said and heard in love. The minor misunderstandings that come with congregating need not deter us. The work of unity begins when we acknowledge that we are not all the same. When unity is prioritized over uniformity, our church community becomes more robust. 

Learning from Friction

When we closely interact with someone we disagree with but still love, we become more like the Savior. Christ uses our disputes as an opportunity to teach us. In the story of the woman taken in adultery, Christ interacts with two entities that would likely never come to peace without his guidance. When the Pharisees present the woman taken in adultery to Jesus, they say: “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?” Jesus, because of this altercation, is able to teach both parties about compassion and repentance. To the Pharisees, he says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” And to the woman taken in adultery, he advises, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:4–11). Although both the woman and the Pharisees were sinning very differently, their confrontations with Jesus were deeply influential.  Engaging with others’ differences shows us our own blind spots. Diversity demands of us more awareness. If we are only maneuvering within homogeneity, then we may be missing out on the opportunity to receive divine instruction, not to mention the opportunity to love and learn from others. 

Daniel Bartholomew. “Nematode.” October, 2018. Ink on paper.

Social friction can be an incredible tool in a refiner’s fire. Interestingly, the city of Enoch faced a fair amount of friction in its early formation. The Book of Moses states, “And from that time forth there were wars and bloodshed among them; but the Lord came and dwelt with his people, and they dwelt in righteousness” (Moses 7:18). Oftentimes, I think we assume that the city of Enoch existed in the most hospitable, amenable environment, when in reality it was surrounded by strife. This strife greatly informed the people of Enoch. If we are not allowing ourselves to engage with productive strife, then we may be missing the point of mortality. When we bump up against each other and feel the frustration of social friction, it has the potential to change us, like it did in the city of Enoch. When we maneuver outside of homogeneity and engage with the friction of diverse perspectives and backgrounds, we become more like Zion.

Christ, Our Unifying Agent 

Jesus’s statement “Be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27) poses a real question: how can we be one when we are made to be different? Thinking once again about an oil and vinegar emulsion, it is interesting to note that the particles in an emulsion never fully dissolve into one another. In fact, without continual mixing, the two will eventually separate. As I have grown as a cook, I have found that adding an emulsifying agent (think dijon mustard or egg yolk) makes the mixing process much easier, and the result more enduring. When trying to hold our diverse church body together, Christ can be our emulsifying agent. He has the power to utilize and unify our differences so that we may become one in him. Merely delighting in our own individuality is not enough. When yoked with Christ, our differences will be sanctified and our separation will cease. Only then will our diversity meet the measure of its creation. 

This ending of separation is how I have come to understand President Oaks’ statement that “Jesus did not pray that followers would be diverse.” Diversity is not our final product. Rather it is the process by which the final product is made. Without diversity we would not become one. We need the diversity of the human family and all of the friction and frustration that comes with it—this is where Christ does his best work. This is how we form Zion.

Hanna Anderson Ringger is a stay at home mom to three rambunctious little kids. Though her free time is limited, she delights in art museums, cooking, and writing. She has a BA in art history from BYU and lives in Virginia with her husband and children.

Art by Daniel Bartholomew. Follow his work at abstractoons.