Official Statement From President Nelson Puts the Kibosh On “Mormon,” “Mormonism,” and “LDS”


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It looks like members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be soon saying farewell to their various nicknames. That seems to be the intent of the bold new announcement from President Russell M. Nelson. Russell and Wendy Nelson, via Mormon Newsroom    Announcement from President Nelson Here's what President Nelson says, as published by Mormon Newsroom today: 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. 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. Additional information about this important matter will be made available in the coming months. This isn't the first time general authorities have emphasized the importance of the actual name of the Church, but the Church's official style guide is taking things to a new level. Here are a few points of interest from the guide that highlight how...

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I will certainly try to adopt these standards in my own discourse.  But . . . The Church expects journalists to use the phrase “the restored gospel of Jesus Christ” in lieu of “Mormonism”?

[Biting tongue . . . ]

[Biting tongue . . . ]

We’ll see where this leads, I guess.

One interesting thing about this request is that amingst faithful Church members who try to observe these guidelines, it may well serve to blur the distinction between LDS doctrine/history/culture/practice by lumping it all in under the umbrella of “the restored gospel”.  I suspect that’s by design.

Edited by Just_A_Guy
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Is it just me, or does it seems like we cycle through this sort of thing over time. It seems like this is not the first time the Church has asked to be called by its official name and to try to distance itself from the "Mormon" moniker. It seems to me that we have tried many times to distance ourselves from the nickname "Mormon", and we never seems to make any real progress in separating ourselves from it.

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This is one thing why people - like the transgendered people, for example - has a hard time shaping language to their desire.  Because language, tends to always seek efficiency.  When you're at a restaurant asking the maitre d if your transgendered female friend who looks like an NFL linebacker has arrived yet, the Maitre D would respond, "yes, HE's waiting over there" instead of having to first figure out if he's a she or a xir or whatever especially when transgenders are a teeny minority.

Same thing with Mormons.  Mormons - 2 syllables - traditionally established for centuries.  That will be very hard to shape language to our liking.  Especially since we're a teeny minority and would have a small influence on language.  So, this is what would happen, say, at a hurricane clean-up effort - "Hi, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we're here to help you with that tree that fell on your house...", "The what church?  Who are you?  Are you here to steal my stuff?  Are you here to make money out of my tragedy?  What group are you with?".. "We're the Church of Jes... we're the Mormons."  "Oh!  The Mormons.  Yes, you're always faster than the Red Cross!  Thank God your'e here!"

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4 minutes ago, Grunt said:

So, bye bye Mormon.org and LDS.org?

Makes you wonder, right?  The Church appears to own http://thechurchofjesuschristoflatter-daysaints.com/ (via some German company).  Slightly more keystrokes, though...

...meanwhile, in my searching, I found that the Church has proposed creation of .lds TLD - to be restricted for use by the Church (and affiliates).

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9 hours ago, Jane_Doe said:

Personally I don't think that this will stick (or is practical) for everyday use.

Still, it would be good for us to try to make the requested switch.  (And certainly, if the members don't try, no one else will bother, but they'll also learn that we ignore the prophet when we consider it [insert adjective here].)

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Guest LiterateParakeet
11 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

I wonder if the church is trying to emphasis that we are Christians? 

Not the church, Sunday, but the Lord. President Nelson said the Lord had impressed this upon his mind.  But I get your point, and I think you are right.  It reminds me of the scripture (which I'm too lazy to look up) that says the church should be called the Church of Jesus Christ because it's His church.  If it is called Mormon, then it's Mormon's church.  I don't know how this will work out for the church websites and mormonnewsroom etc., afterall, I think we should use the Lord's name respectfully---I am not a fan of bumperstickers that mention the Savior's name.  I think He deserves more respect than to be on someone's dirty bumper.  And for my taste, a .com with the Savior's name would be taking His name in vain.   However, if the prophet says otherwise, I'll accept it.  :)   For now, I'm just going to wait and be curious what the Lord and the Leaders will unfold.  :) 

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Guest LiterateParakeet
5 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Well I wish President Nelson well. He has a hard job especially for someone his age. I have never heard of a Prophet resigning so he has along haul! Just think...No Sunday’s off! 

So true!  I remember on my mission, Sunday's were often the busiest day of the week.  I imagine it's so much more so for the prophet and the other Leaders!  I'm constantly amazed at how much energy he has at his age! 

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[singing]
I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints!  I know who I am. I know God's plan! I'll follow him in faith!
[/singing]

It ain't that hard people.  Say it the long way first, then say "the church" the rest of the time.  

You know what else ain't hard?  Putting a dang link to the dang news release in the dang article.  The author managed to link everydangthing else under the sun, but there's no actual link to the actual church statement.  [grinds my teeth at the state of journalism today]

Here.  https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/name-of-the-church

[back to singing]

 

Edited by NeuroTypical
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16 hours ago, zil said:

The Church appears to own http://thechurchofjesuschristoflatter-daysaints.com/ (via some German company).  Slightly more keystrokes, though...

The Church could easily make lds.org and mormon.org forward to the full named site without any different user experience.

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2 minutes ago, zil said:

Yes, I know.  They already do that with http://thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints.com (no hyphen - redirects to mormon.org).

I think the Strangites (all 300 of them) might object.  They use the same formal name as we do, but without the hyphen.

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