I keep getting LDS links in my news feed. Maybe they know I post here and they're trying to get me to come back? (haha)
Yesterday's headline in Des News did catch my eye though:
"President Nelson asked President Ballard to help correct church’s name. Here’s how he led the Twelve."
I confess to some amusement at the headline. Who has to "correct" their church's name?
They try, I think, to make it sound like it's the outside world that's confused. But they've been happy enough to call themselves Mormons for all these decades. Suddenly, we need an English class to parse the various modes of address when it comes to Mormonism?
And they sound pretty happy that apparently the eager world is lapping up this timely Sunday School lesson from "the prophet" and switching to the latest terminology wrt the Mormon Church - oh sorry - I mean LDS - oh no - sorry - I mean The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Or more familiarly, just the Church of Jesus Christ. Because that is their witness to the world. Or a way of seeming more mainstream. Or holy. Or something.
What's so funny (to me anyway) is how many times in one brief article the word 'correction' is used. Why does the most correct church on earth need a correction when it comes to something as simple, and crucial, as its own name?
And it's worded somehow in such a way as to make it seem it's "the world" that made the mistake that needs to be "corrected".
If I were advising them, I would likely say not to make the correction part of it so prominent. Because if you are God's one true church that was restored, or whatever, why would you get the name wrong to start with? And then the weaselly leaders need to pretend it's outsiders who are using the wrong moniker?
Why would not the church founder know the right name to start off with? Why would other church leaders through all the decades not already know it and teach it and use it? Why the need for a long wait until the 21st C before Ballard et al finally set the world straight, including their own members, on the actual real best name, at last?
The instructions (stated below) about the various labels referring to the church needing to relate to proper nouns (say what? I'm not even sure I get what that means and I'm a grammar nerd) seem ponderous in the extreme. The church in my neighbourhood is just called The United Church. Others up the street are just called Pentecostal or Catholic. Not too fussy or long or difficult to recall and no need for a newspaper article to explain to everybody, church members included, when to use which title and specifically with which parts of speech (eg: "proper nouns").
Excerpts from the Des News article:
“President Russell M. Nelson began to emphasize the correct, full name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nearly three decades before he became its president.
“Eight months after he was ordained the church’s prophet and president, he announced in August 2018 the church no longer would use the terms “LDS” or “Mormon,” unless related to the Book of Mormon or other proper nouns.
“President Nelson set the tone and the course for a correction with that announcement and his general conference talk two months later. “The name of the church is not negotiable,” he said, because Christ himself had revealed it. “For much of the world, the Lord’s Church is presently disguised as the ‘Mormon Church.’”
“When we omit his name from his Church, we are inadvertently removing him as the central focus of our lives,” he said.
“How would the church correct its name across the world?
“As President Nelson said a year later in another general conference talk, he assigned President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to lead the entire quorum to institutionalize the correction.
“Suddenly, not long before President Nelson’s announcement, ChurchofJesusChrist.org was offered for sale. The church purchased it for “a very modest amount,” Elder Andersen said.
“Then ChurchofJesusChrist.com became available the month President Nelson announced the name correction, and the church scooped it up, too.
“It was a miracle,” Elder Andersen declared.
“The second signal the church was intent on carrying out President Nelson’s vision was changing the name of one of the church’s biggest international brands.
“The Mormon Tabernacle Choir willingly surrendered its name. Today it is known proudly as the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
“LDS Business College became Ensign College. Mormon.org was redirected into ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
“In all, over 1,000 products that had the name “Mormon” or “LDS” attached were renamed, Elder Andersen reported.
“The third and final stroke was changing the church’s symbol, or logo.
“President Nelson said he again enlisted President Ballard and the Quorum of the Twelve to oversee further emphasizing Christ at the center of the symbol representing the church.
“The world has taken note. Leaders of other religions, humanitarian officials, politicians, many journalists and others now regularly use the church’s full name.
“We have gone to these extraordinary efforts because when we remove the Lord’s name from the name of his church, we inadvertently remove him as the central focus of our worship and our lives,” he said.
“President Ballard said the correction would clarify the church’s messaging to the world.
“As this goes forward, it will become more and more evident in our literature, in our messaging, in anything where the church is connected, that we are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” President Ballard said. “It is part of the message of the ongoing restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
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"The world has taken note" - good heavens - there's a lot going on. I don't think this teensy little LDS development makes a big enough splash to register on the universe, especially not when there are many meaningful, urgent, tragic, earth-shattering and everlasting situations occurring as we speak.
As for "miracles" - if such exist, please God could they be used for the good of humanity, not picayune administrative blips in a tiny little bubble - such as a web name becoming available for use by a small self-serving organization. That's what a Mormon leader ascribes to a miracle?
And what a stroke of (belated) genius - to change the LDS logo so everybody would know at a glance that it's a Christian organization. {{sarc}}
I'm glad they're sounding so happy. Maybe they think they're finally getting their act together. Weird that it could take this length of time.
The other thing I can never get used to (as I so often say) is how they emphasize 'Christ'. I knew an overbearing sister missionary who said it loud and proud all the time and it never once sounded reverent to me. Perhaps largely due to the fact that it was my dad's favourite form of emphasis. It just never sounds churchy to me - not like churches I'm familiar with where the term 'Jesus' is much more prevalent and not as 'sweary' in my ears.
OK, that was fun - over-analyzing their grammatical corrections - now do not forget which names one should use and especially when it's with or without the involvement of proper nouns.
Goofing off aside: It's kind of pitiful to me that they over-obsess about such basics, which you'd think they could have figured out long before now, when there are actual real and urgent issues occurring as we speak.
PS: From the article - “The name of the church is not negotiable,” he said, because Christ himself had revealed it."
If this is so, why did it take this long in the church's existence for Mormon prophets to get the message? Not too efficient!
Article (Des News):
https://www.deseret.com/2023/11/16/23953064/president-nelson-asked-president-ballard-to-help-correct-churchs-name-heres-how-he-led-the-twelveEdited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2023 10:58AM by Nightingale.