The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issues new name guidelines, dropping term Mormon in most uses

[Michelle]

Funny that the official statement comes from https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/ ... the-church

but I guess you have to start somewhere.

Honestly, the church should keep all the domains associated with mormon just so no anti's try to create a whole host of unofficial pages.

[oriagain14]

What does it really matter? I'm still going to have to "clarify" as to which church I belong to anyways. Ultimately, it's not going to effect our salvation. So, who cares?

[TrueIntent]

The reason they are changing the name is because the scriptures say, Christ church is called by his name. There are two things I would like to point out.

1. Just a few years ago, the church was encouraging members to use the name Mormon....hence, "I'm a mormon" profiles, and "meet the mormons." This was NEVER a doctrinally sound decision. So it is a good thing we are changing the name. See Scripture below.

8 And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel.

2. The Second point I would like to make, is that the original name of the Church was NOT "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints".....this name was given to US as a church after we did not obey the lord. (See this blog post...it goes through the changes made in the early records of the church).....THIS IS WHY the break off "Church of Christ"....still goes by "Church of Christ."

Here is a quote from a blog that discusses the name change: (https://onewhoiswatching.wordpress.com/ ... 2-23-1832/)

The answer is found hidden deep in the history of the church and in the Joseph Smith Papers. It takes place when Oliver Cowdery is ordained to the office of assistant President of the High and Holy Priesthood in the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS:

Friday Evening, December 5, 1834. According to the direction of the Holy Spirit, Pr[e]sident Smith, assistant Presidents, [Sidney] Rigdon and [Frederick G.] Williams, assembled for the purpose of ordaining <​first​> High Counsellor [Oliver] Cowdery to the office of assistant President of the High and Holy Priesthood in the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.

You will notice according to that journal entry that the Church is no longer being called the Church of Christ anymore.

Why?

Because just months before this event, a special conference was called to change the name of the church to the Church of the Latter day Saints!

Here are the minutes of the meeting as contained in the history of the church.

“During a conference held on May 3, 1834, with Joseph Smith acting as moderator, “a motion was made by Sidney Rigdon, and seconded by Newel K. Whitney, that this Church be known hereafter by the name of ‘The Church of the Latter-day Saints.’ Remarks were made by the members, after which the motion passed by unanimous vote” (History of the Church 2:62-63). er, p. 73).”

As you can see, the name of the Church of Christ that had been given by revelation and was congruent with the New Testament Church and the Book of Mormon churches of Christ, was being changed.

The name of Christ was being taken out of the name of the Church.

Why?

Because the saints had failed to live the fulness of the gospel and were no longer worthy to be called by his name.

I have no issue with the church making this request....HOWEVER it does bug me that they dont explain to the members WHY?????? The scriptural reason WHY is because Christ's church, according to scripture, AS WELL AS, his Saints, will be called by His NAME.....The fact that we were using different names, like mormon or LDS, reveals how little we know our own books of scripture as well as apply these books of scripture to ourselves. This is why we must read the scriptures ourselves.....I for one, mentally separate the LDS Church from HIS CHURCH.....when HE comes AGAIN to reign personally upon the earth....We will either be HIS church, OR some of us will have been gathered into it. It will be HIS church when we don't need to make changes like this....but it's still a move in a positive direction. There are only two churches. What is not positive is my next point.......

Members should ask the question WHY the change.....well it's because we erred......its the same reason we are now attempting to do a "ministering by the spirit" method of application. I just think the Church should be more forward with their explanations. It's plain as day why we are making the change according to scripture....What is NOT plain, is why recent media campaigns encouraged members to refer to themselves as mormon....mormon.org, and meet the mormons. We still aren't OPEN with the membership when we make an error...we call our "NEW DISCOVERY" revelation...and that bugs me....it's not revelation as much as it is us as a church repenting.

A title is a title....the key is, "but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel." WE must be built upon the gospel...otherwise a name is just a name and we take it in vain.

Final point....A name in scripture is a "becoming".....Jesus was "CHRIST".....Jesus was "MESSIAH".......These are "becomings"...and represent WHO HE WAS....when we take upon ourselves the name of "Christ"....it is more than just calling ourselves, Christians, Mormons, LDS, or even THE CHURCH OF CHRIST......it is a "BECOMING"....we must BE what we "Wear" as a name.....we must preach the same gospel or we take HIS name in vain.

[TrueIntent]

Anyone else find this kind of disturbing:
“The term “Mormonism” is inaccurate and should not be used. When describing the combination of doctrine, culture and lifestyle unique to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the term “the restored gospel of Jesus Christ” is accurate and preferred.”

There is nothing disturbing at all. It is a lot more accurate than what has been used in recent years. I generally use the term "gospel of Jesus Christ" in lessons and talks, so "the restored gospel of Jesus Christ" is just putting more emphasis on the fact that the gospel principles and ordinances are once again on the earth.

Culture and lifestyle are not the gospel. I think it is a dangerous precedent to set.

3 Nephi 11:40
40 And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.

You know....WHO SET THE CULTURE AND THE LIFESTYLE????? Im pretty sure all these things were taught over the pulpit by the general authorities....Change is necessary, but who taught the members this in the first place. Where do we get our "culture" and "lifestyle" from? We get it from our Leaders. It is a true statement that "cultural and lifestyle" are not the gospel.....but there is a lack of accountibity here for me....once again....from the leaders.. This is why I do my own research before I even listen to what they say. I wasn't born yesterday. Language is so manipulative....but history is revealing....and they keep revealing the same pattern of behavior...A lack of ownership. It's great to fix errors, but when you don't acknowledge that "YOU GUYS ...the leaders" were the ones that taught the errors....well...that leaves me thinking, I must read my own scriptures and follow the spirit or I will be in error too.

[Joel]

[Hie'ing to Kolob]

Back and forth, back and forth. Too bad we didn't stick with Church of Christ. Maybe we can easily change those "I'm a Mormon" profiles to "I'm not a Mormon profile."

[Joel]

[Sunain]

Culture and lifestyle are not the gospel. I think it is a dangerous precedent to set.

I agree with you on the culture part, sort of. Utah culture is definitely not the culture of the global church, that's for sure! But even then, Christians as a whole have a different culture and lifestyle than that of the world. Every day we can see that the followers of Christ, those that follow his gospel teachings, are on two diverting paths that are widening apart.

Lifestyle though is very entwined with the gospel. The Word of Wisdom quickly comes to mind as an integral part of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. A modern day revelation on how our lifestyle is greatly different than that of the world. We also try to live Christlike lives which is also a lifestyle significantly different than that of the world. Members of the church are often called peculiar because we choose to live differently than everyone else.

1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

[EmmaLee]

I just got a notification that the group 'Mormon Women Stand' has changed its name to 'Latter-day Saint Women Stand'. It begins...

[Thinker]

[Thinker]

Man that is going to be a thumb twister typing that out one the phone!

"· 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. Thus, please avoid using the abbreviation "LDS" or the nickname "Mormon" as substitutes for the name of the Church, as in "Mormon Church," "LDS Church," or "Church of the Latter-day Saints."

Estimates are in:
Part of population that will go to the extra effort successfully every time referring to the church by the long name: .000001%

Part of the population who will continue referring to the church as “Mormon” or LDS: 35%

Part of the population who has no idea who or what mormons, lds or the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is: 64.000009%
=
Could be that Christ prefers that only those use his name who act as Christ in prioritizing helping those in need, not using Christ’s name in vain to make money.

[Joel]

[Joel]

[Elizabeth]

Personally, I have never used the word "Mormon"... except when referring to The Book of Mormon.

[BruceRGilbert]

“Mormon carries a lot of negative connotation, we know from surveys,” he said. “Mormon is even a more fraught term internationally than domestically. Maybe this is yet another part of President Nelson’s administration keeping an eye on the global church even if it causes a little discomfort or anxiety within the U.S. church.”

Updated style guide

The updated style guide states, in part:

· In the first reference, the full name of the Church is preferred: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

· When a shortened reference is needed, the terms "the Church" or the "Church of Jesus Christ" are encouraged. The "restored Church of Jesus Christ" is also accurate and encouraged.

· 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. Thus, please avoid using the abbreviation "LDS" or the nickname "Mormon" as substitutes for the name of the Church, as in "Mormon Church," "LDS Church," or "Church of the Latter-day Saints."

· When referring to Church members, the terms "members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" or "Latter-day Saints" are preferred. We ask that the term "Mormons" not be used.

· When referring to people or organizations that practice polygamy, it should be stated that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not affiliated with polygamous groups.

With enough reformation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can step away from all the stigma and errant history that has been associated with "Mormonism." So much for lds.org and the google apostasy!

[gkearney]

One problem that using the term Latter-day Saints presents is one of spelling. The term means two different things when spelled in ever so slightly different ways:

Latter-day Saints (hyphen and lower case day) Refers only the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Latter Day Saints (no hyphen upper case Day) Refers to all groups who originate with in the restoration.

So for example it is proper usage to refer to the members of the Community of Christ (RLDS), Church of Christ (Temple Lot) as well as ourselves as "Latter Day Saints". But it is not correct to refer to any of those other groups as "Latter-day Saints".

This fine distinction can be very hard to follow and can trip up even the most experienced editors.

On a related note it is not proper to ever refer to members of the Community of Christ (RLDS), Church of Christ (Temple Lot), or Church of Jesus Christ (Rigdon) as Mormons but it is fine to do so for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strang), there is that spelling again. They often refer to themselves as "Great Likes Mormons".

Confused yet?

[Joel]

[sevenator]

Again?

Is this why they came up with Mormon.org? What about "Meet the Mormons"?

*sigh*

I don't disagree with the sentiment, in fact I agree with it completely. But geez....

[Joel]

[Joel]

[Thinker]

This demand is likely to create stress and anger from unrealistic expectations.
We’re dealing with many people who abbreviate everything... & they’re expecting them to repeatedly say “The church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints” (11 syllables) over “Mormon” (2 syllables)?


...And sing along to their music - they love that!

[jadd]

Anyone else find this kind of disturbing:
“The term “Mormonism” is inaccurate and should not be used. When describing the combination of doctrine, culture and lifestyle unique to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the term “the restored gospel of Jesus Christ” is accurate and preferred.”

Yeah, I wasn't/am not a big fan of that. I see the Gospel as something different from culture and lifestyle. The Gospel should become our culture and lifestyle, but to imply that it already is, is incorrect in my opinion - at least for most of us.

[Fiannan]

SInce GBH said that fundamentalist Mormons were not really Mormons and now President Nelson says Mormons are not really Mormons, can the fundamentalists now claim title to being Mormons?

[EmmaLee]

I just got a notification that the group 'Mormon Women Stand' has changed its name to 'Latter-day Saint Women Stand'. It begins...

And now today, I've received notifications from 1/2 dozen or more Facebook groups I belong to, that had the word "Mormon" or "LDS" in their name, that they've changed their names to having "Latter-day Saint" in the title, instead of "Mormon" or "LDS". Nowhere do the words "Jesus Christ" appear in any of the names though. Curious. I'm still a bit puzzled by all this.

[jadd]

I just got a notification that the group 'Mormon Women Stand' has changed its name to 'Latter-day Saint Women Stand'. It begins...

And now today, I've received notifications from 1/2 dozen or more Facebook groups I belong to, that had the word "Mormon" or "LDS" in their name, that they've changed their names to having "Latter-day Saint" in the title, instead of "Mormon" or "LDS". Nowhere do the words "Jesus Christ" appear in any of the names though. Curious. I'm still a bit puzzled by all this.

Personally, I believe the idea is to make s realize and emphasize that we should be "Latter-Day Saints" and are members of the Church of Jesus Christ." When finally acknowledging that we are Members of the Church of Jesus Christ (or should be in Spirit and not just body) - it may cause an attitude shift and tonal shift in how we at towards others as well. That isn't to say that it should have been there before, but often we get so focused on acronyms and nicknames that we actually forget who we are supposed to be. I'm mormon and I'm LDS sounds a lot less sacred/impactful that I'm a member of the CHurch of Jesus Christ, or I'm a latter-day saint (or at least trying to be on both accounts). So it was President Nelson's subtle way of calling us to repentance and a subtle call for us to begin to practice what we preach - in and outside of the Church (of Jesus Christ). Unsurprisingly I think most will miss the purpose behind the intent. However, it is necessary because we all learn line upon line, precept upon precept. Thus some will see and some will hear and others will not.