All this current name changing is because the words Mormon and LDS are negatively perceived by the general public. Polygamy, child brides, cults and being weird in general are what are what people think when they hear those words.

The only real solution is to dump Joseph Smith and everything he taught. Not only does the word Mormon need to go so does everything else.

The Church of Jesus Christ of 1960

Reminds me of a restaurant in Orem back in the late 80's when I was at BYU. It opened as "Squat and Gobble" but wasn't getting much business. The guy that played keyboard in the band I was in took his FIL there when he was visiting Utah. On the way out, FIL suggested they consider a new name.

They changed it to "Howie's Root Beer" and business took off.

The difference between Howie's and the church? Howies had a good product, just a bad name. The church has a bad product, which has given it a bad name.

I always wanted to go there but I was young and had no money.

They had good burgers and very good homemade root beer. I was young, had no money, and had an angry wife and 2 kids. I only went there once maybe twice. It was near the end of my time at BYU.

Anyone here remember the Mr. Steak that opened in late 1968 on N. State St. in Provo?

I don't, but I was there in the later 80s. There was a restaurant called "The Wooden Spoon" when I was there. I won a contest at the provo movie theater....spit a milk dud farther than anyone else....32 feet. I won a limo for the evening, dinner for 2 at the restaurant, movie for two, then desert and 2 gallons of ice cream to take home from the restaurant.

Hi EOD. I remember hearing about it and should have tried it. I was kinda stuck on Sizzler at the time. Speaking of old Provo restaurants: When I first went to BYU in 64-65 I was living in Chipman Hall and one of my Chicago buddies was in Taylor Hall. We hooked up with two waitresses at Heaps and used to walk down there and they’d bring us free pizza.(usually leftover pieces from other customers). Heaps is gone but it’s been replaced with Brick Oven Pizza in the same location. There was Jimba’s on Center Street(I played guitar and did Dylan songs for free pizza there). And don’t forget Keith’s Diner....and High Spot..and...and...that’s enough.

They should just call it the Church of Corporation.

Can't you tell that the church is truly proud of their amassed mountain of money?

...this is exactly why we should turn to Warren Jeffs for guidance.

I noticed that their website was lds.org and now it is
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng

They very much want to ride on Jesus's popularity and want to claim to be just another Jesus church.

Don't get me wrong. Jesus is popular but I think all his derived religions are all none sense and that goes for all other religions I have heard of and probably the other ones as well. Ancient Europeans put themselves on the wrong path with all the son of god having to come to Earth to be killed thing.

How can you forgive someone else by having your son executed by cops?

I hope your guys aren't jumping from one none sense (mormon) to another (christian).

I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Not all sandwiches come with poo. Some people still like sandwiches after quitting the specially flavored one.

Lipstick on a pig ?

Like trying to polish a turd.

I was at one of those weekday networking cocktail parties, and a man from California asked a group of us if we attended the Mormon church. I kept my mouth shut, and sure enough, one of the TBM's pretended to not know what the California guy was asking.

"Huh? What church do you mean? Oh.... Do you mean The Church of Jesus Ch--" I could sense that the TBM was relishing an oppportunity to set some heathen straight on the officially approved name.

But before the TBM could get the right name out, the Califoria guy said, "I mean the Joseph Smith church."

It happened too fast for me to suppress my laughter, completely. I laughed all the way home, drivning alone in my car, watching the most beautifull sunset. The name change is really idiotic. I guess the cult can afford to change all the signs and advertisements and Mormon campaigns and labels and books and articles and papers and conference talks that use the old names. As usual, the members are the losers that pay the price. They will pay for the names to all be changed again, in 5 more years. More jobs for Deseret Pubishing and Bountiful Media, or whatever those companies are called now. There's stationery, business cards, brochures, bank accounts, money-laundering accounts, outstanding lawsuits--well, maybe they won't change ALL of it.

LDS prophets are pretty disposable. The members forgot about Thomas S Monson pretty quick. They will forget about Russ too. Then it’s whatever the new guy wants to do. The church in Salt Lake will continue to be called the Mormon church. That won’t go away. They are stuck with it.

Yes, it's manufactured offense. Passive aggressive people love it. It's the curse of the modern world.

It plays to the insider-outsider game. It's not about intent, it's about someone used the wrong word. It creates friction with the people who aren't brainwashed into your viewpoint, and suddenly the world is divided into "allies" (who become converts) and enemies (who use the wrong words!).

I wish I was there. That was a good comeback line. Hope you didn't spit any wine on your dress. What was the Joseph Smith guy drinking? I hope Rusty bankrupts the church with all of his changes to the church, but I forgot, as you mentioned, that the members will just be asked to pay for it in the form of charity or something. The only person worse than Rusty is Wendy.
I don't know why I let that woman bother me so.

"I don't know why I let that woman bother me so."

She's reaping all the rewards for his longevity after having paid so little of the price.

Those are all imaginary rewards, especially the public attention, but she always craved them and craves them still.

New temple worthiness questions, “What is the current official name for the Lord’s only true church? And, how is it officially spelled correctly? The Latter-day Boner

That's a good one! It'll be like " What's the password of the week" type of question. Only people really obedient (and paying their tithes )would know the correct answer.
" Sorry, that was our name last week, goodbye, you disobedient servant".

Joseph Smith is all they have. Christ? What do Mormons know about Christ? Church-inspired neuroticism produces a strange faith if there is any faith at all. Because I don’t see any real faith at the top. Maybe they’re taking Jesus not visiting them in the temple personally. But it’s easy enough to see that their one true God is the Almighty Dollar. True to Brother Joseph, no?

Yeah, Ensign is a bit of a funny choice given the current financial whistleblower story.

Rebranding will only work well if it's down to the core, not just on the surface. Who knows, it may well be part of the path towards a long term restructuring to eliminate the B of M and JS story. To ultimately void its toxic history, it would need to do that.

Still wish they would change BYU to something else, for sake of alumni saddled with a theocratic polyg namesake. But to something positive and not connected to the church's negative history or its present issues. It could be done, it might cost a bit of coin but they have the means!

Tattletale University

"Home of the Honor Code"

Where ratting on your fellow peers/students is not only tolerated, but is expected.

They should have a mascot like Chuck E Cheese. BYU, where being ratted on is part of the fun! The cougar needs to go anyway. Nowadays “cougar” means something else.

They should call it,

The $100 Billion and Growing Cult

When you think about it, it is a very primitive viewpoint. One reflected in the temple ceremony too.

Unfortunately, it does tie into some modern thinking. There are a lot of people around who believe they can change language and repeat buzzwords to influence others or even brainwash them into their POV. Others think that they can warp words to their meaning, and they have partly succeeded in some cases.

In other cases, it is a verbal trap set to trip up others. You can find out who follows the party line the most by working out who uses the correct vocabulary. If they use "Mormon" for anything other than a scriptural character or a few books then they are not following the parole du jour or being politically correct.

These verbal traps - in a more fashionable sense - set up a scenario where people can be offended by harmless remarks. "Ya called me Mormon, yer ignurnt." So I guess maybe Rusty is more in tune with the times than we know!!! ;)