That 'M' Word

That calling Latter-day Saints "Mormon" is becoming passé is something I learned when I gave a lecture at Brigham Young University last May. During the question period, after I finished speaking, a young member of the audience informed me that my reference to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as Mormons revealed a lack of respect that she resented.

I was somewhat taken aback. But as I saw heads throughout the audience nodding in agreement, I realized that it was almost as if I had called the Saints "Mormonites," the term of ridicule people in the early days used to insult Joseph Smith's followers. What many of my listeners at BYU did not know is that the Mormon prophet himself shortened this derisive nickname into "Mormon," thereby transforming it into a brand name his followers would embrace with pride for over 150 years.

Recently, however, leaders of the LDS Church announced that this venerable institution is no longer willing to be identified as the Mormon Church (or even as "the LDS Church"). Additionally, it prefers not to have church members identified as Mormons. The name of the tradition is still Mormonism, perhaps because it would be so hard to add "ism" to the church's somewhat unwieldy name. But official efforts to change the way people refer to Latter-day Saints and the way they refer to themselves and each other are obviously having considerable success.

Various explanations have been proposed for this official nomenclature shift. It may well be an effort to emphasize the "Jesus Christ" part of the church's name. But I see it as more than that. To me, it is yet another step away from the beginnings of Mormonism, from the days when most of the Saints lived in Utah and its environs and when both the church and Mormon culture were embedded in the soil of the "Mormon culture region."

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