Mormons Don't Want You Calling Them Mormons Anymore

[mike]

I guess they want to be "just Christians."

(CNN)The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is embarking on a rebranding effort of sorts.

The church, commonly referred to as the Mormons, really wants people to stop using that word. It also wants people to stop using LDS as an abbreviation. From now on, it prefers that people use the church's full name, and when a shortened reference is needed, to just use "the Church" or "Church of Jesus Christ."
These preferences are contained in a new style guide that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released Thursday. It states that while "the term 'Mormon Church' has long been publicly applied to the Church as a nickname, it is not an authorized title, and the Church discourages its use." It also asks that the term "Mormons" not be used in references to members.

Also out: the word "Mormonism," which the style guide states is an "inaccurate" word to use to describe the "doctrine, culture and lifestyle unique to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." But the word Mormon is fine to use in proper names, like the Book of Mormon, or in historical expressions like the Mormon Trail.

'The importance of the name'

The style guide was published on a church website, along with comments from the church's leader.

"The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Russell M. Nelson, the church's president, said in a statement. "We have work before us to bring ourselves in harmony with His will. In recent weeks, various Church leaders and departments have initiated the necessary steps to do so."

Over the next few months, church websites and other materials will be updated to fall in line with this new directive, the statement said.

And that leads to all kinds of questions: Will the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir be renamed? What happens to the "I'm a Mormon" advertising campaign? Will the Mormon moniker be stripped from the Mormon Channel, the church's multimedia arm? Will the letters "LDS" disappear from the plethora of related entities that carry it, such as the LDS Business College, LDS Charities or Intermountain LDS Hospital?

Even the website that announced the preferences for the name is called mormonnewsroom.org. Will its name change?
A church spokeswoman told CNN there would be no further official comment.

Not the first time

This effort to distance itself from the Mormon name isn't new. Leaders of the faith -- which has more than 16 million members worldwide -- made similar efforts in 1982, 2001 and 2011, CNN affiliate KSTU reported.
Patrick Mason, a religion professor and chair of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University, said there are a couple of reasons why the church wants to create a clear separation between itself and the word Mormon.

"Mormon is a long-standing nickname for the church and for the movement, but the church leadership has always been concerned that the nickname has obscured the fundamentally Christian nature of the church and the religion," Mason told CNN. "Especially since they're so many people who've criticized the church and have done so historically for not being Christian or orthodoxly Christian. The church leadership really wants to emphasize the fact that it is a Christian church."
Mason said the word Mormon has been used to describe not just the members of the church, but it's also been used more broadly to include members of other splinter groups that broke away from the mainstream church.

"That includes what are now known as the fundamentalists, which are the polygamists," Mason said. "For more than 100 years, the mainstream LDS church has gone to great pains to distance itself from those who practice polygamy. It doesn't want to have any confusion there between those two groups."

But Mason's not sure if this effort will catch on either. Other than Nelson saying he felt inspired to do this, Mason said there doesn't seem to be an obvious "reason why (Nelson) would feel that they might be more successful this time around than in the past."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in upstate New York in 1830, when Joseph Smith published writings he said he found and translated from Egyptian-style hieroglyphics into English. That's the Book of Mormon, which believers say consists of writings produced by ancient American civilizations and complied by a prophet named Mormon.

[Hats Off]

At a recent family reunion, I said to one of the cousins "I can recognize you as believers but I really don't know if you go to church and where. One of my uncles married a Latter Day Saint girl and influenced another brother and his wife to also join the Latter Day Saints. I knew that the oldest male cousin was attending a mainline protestant church and wondered if more had gone that way. One of the Latter Day Saints cousin's children is a Methodist pastor.

It seemed the man I asked the question was almost offended and answered that they attend a Community of Christ congregation. He indicated that it had some LDS background but today they are NOT LDS influenced. It seems they do want to distance themselves from the LDS or Mormon faith, whatever that is.

[Bootstrap]

It seemed the man I asked the question was almost offended and answered that they attend a Community of Christ congregation. He indicated that it had some LDS background but today they are NOT LDS influenced. It seems they do want to distance themselves from the LDS or Mormon faith, whatever that is.

Yes, they are significantly different from LDS. But still very much Mormon.

Comparison of the Community of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church)) and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) are two denominations that share a common heritage in the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. Since Smith's death in 1844, they have evolved separately in belief and practices. The LDS Church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and claims more than 15 million members worldwide; the Community of Christ is headquartered in Independence, Missouri, and reports a worldwide membership of approximately 250,000.

[KingdomBuilder]

The thing is... the only ones who will care enough will be Mormons themselves lol

[Pelerin]

The Community of Christ has a peace position that MCC helped them draft, I believe. They rejected many of the distinctive later Mormon doctrines. They’re orthodox, in that they’re trinitarian. They rejected polygamy: apparently the founder of the RLDS, Joseph Smith’s widow, Emma, wasn’t ok with it, who knew?

The RLDS made a move toward mainstream Christianity with the name change to Community of Christ. This move by the, um, LDS (give me a break, I’m typing on a phone), in contrast, showcases something distinctly Mormon: rigid fundamentalism (its based on an extremely literal reading of Mormon scripture), combined with the flexibility to quickly change direction that comes with a living prophet. So much for all that positive branding of the word “Mormon” they’ve done over the last decade or so.

(All this is based on observations from a distance. Mormonism was my hobby a few years ago.)

[lesterb]

At a recent family reunion, I said to one of the cousins "I can recognize you as believers but I really don't know if you go to church and where. One of my uncles married a Latter Day Saint girl and influenced another brother and his wife to also join the Latter Day Saints. I knew that the oldest male cousin was attending a mainline protestant church and wondered if more had gone that way. One of the Latter Day Saints cousin's children is a Methodist pastor.

It seemed the man I asked the question was almost offended and answered that they attend a Community of Christ congregation. He indicated that it had some LDS background but today they are NOT LDS influenced. It seems they do want to distance themselves from the LDS or Mormon faith, whatever that is.

Our uncles and families were RLDS so that means Terry hasn't changed his allegiance at all. They just changed their name.

I suppose they still own the copyright on the Book of Mormon. What are they going to call it?

[ohio jones]

I suppose they still own the copyright on the Book of Mormon. What are they going to call it?

I'll check that out next time I stay in a Marriott property. Of course it might take a while to update the copies in all 1.2 million rooms.

[Ernie]

At a recent family reunion, I said to one of the cousins "I can recognize you as believers but I really don't know if you go to church and where. One of my uncles married a Latter Day Saint girl and influenced another brother and his wife to also join the Latter Day Saints. I knew that the oldest male cousin was attending a mainline protestant church and wondered if more had gone that way. One of the Latter Day Saints cousin's children is a Methodist pastor.

It seemed the man I asked the question was almost offended and answered that they attend a Community of Christ congregation. He indicated that it had some LDS background but today they are NOT LDS influenced. It seems they do want to distance themselves from the LDS or Mormon faith, whatever that is.

Our uncles and families were RLDS so that means Terry hasn't changed his allegiance at all. They just changed their name.

I suppose they still own the copyright on the Book of Mormon. What are they going to call it?

The Book of Mormon is in Public Domain. It is Joseph Smith's Translation of the Bible that is copyrighted by RLDS / Community of Christ.
If it was not for this copyright matter, the LDS would use and lay claim to Joseph's translation of the Bible. (Joseph Smith inserted his name into an OT prophecy validating his rise to power as a Prophet.) But since the LDS don't have the copyright, and they don't want people to know that the Emma, Joesph's widow wanted nothing to do with the polygamous group in Utah that became LDS, they've decided to adopt the KJV as their Bible, even though they believe it has been corrupted. What a mess!

[MaxPC]

I suppose they still own the copyright on the Book of Mormon. What are they going to call it?

That was my first thought.

[MaxPC]

I suppose they still own the copyright on the Book of Mormon. What are they going to call it?

That was my first thought.