Is this disrespectful to Mormons?

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When they change the name of the Book of Mormon, I will be concerned about this.

In person I usually call them LDS anyway. I’m not going to call them the Church of Jesus Christ, that’s for sure.
 
The only problem I see here is that the name “Catholic” is not the same as “The Church of Jesus Christ”. If that was our name and a mormon came to me with honest eyes and said sadly he couldn’t go against his conscience because he truly believes his church is the church of Jesus, the humanity in me and seeing their sincerity… I just wouldn’t hold it against him. At all. As a matter of fact I probably would admire that fidelity to the knowledge of God they have however wrong I think it might be.
And if in the future I ever found out that someone went against their conscience to call me a name, I would feel bad.
 
I didn’t say that what we’ve been called is acceptable. I said that we’ve been called worse.
 
When I read about this a couple of weeks ago I knew I would struggle with calling them “The Church of Jesus Christ” or even worse, “The Church” because, that’s us Catholics, yo.

I also wonder why members don’t question how much their church evolves over time. This latest change is nothing more than rebranding.

Just for comparsion: There are movements in the Church, I think Opus Dei was one or maybe Cursillo, that came to the founder in a complete thought, with no subsequent changes. I’m leaning toward Cursillo because it’s one of the reasons that innovations introduced by the team on weekends are so frustrating; they are a turn off and undermine the mission of the movement. The founder never intended them to happen.
 
I don’t call people by their religion so this is a bit confusing for me.
 
I never said go against conscience. I simply said treat people decently; there’s been overtones of hatefulness on this thread as if they didn’t deserve to be treated respectfully.
 
So I had to look up why they no longer wanted to be called Mormon and what their preference is.
They don’t even want the LDS abbreviation and apparently just want to be referred to as “the Church” or “The Church of Jesus Christ”

Given that the Catholic Church does not recognize their baptisms, then this new label requested is false and my conscience will not allow me to use it. You can respectfully not recognize their church as being such without being rude. I certainly had friends tell me they do not recognize or agree with my Catholicism and I didn’t think they were rude. Naturally I don’t agree with them but they weren’t disrespectful or rude.

I suppose it’s not much of an issue for me to confront in the future. I grew up with a lot of Mormon friends but there certainly aren’t many here in England that I would be having this conversation with. If I ever have to ask my Mormon friends anything I will probably just call it a church.
 
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I don’t have any problem going with Latter-day Saints, although people are naturally going to shorten that to LDS.

From ‘Mormon Tabernacle Choir renamed as church shifts away from ‘Mormon’ label’:

The name change comes as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is distancing itself from shorthand labels such as “Mormon” and “LDS.”

[Church President Russell M. Nelson] issued guidelines saying that “Latter-day Saints” was acceptable shorthand.
 
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Ardent_Fire said:
They don’t even want the LDS abbreviation and apparently just want to be referred to as “the Church” or “The Church of Jesus Christ”
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Good luck with that. It’s likely within Utah, “The Church” is understood to be them. Anywhere in the rest of the world, “The Church” means the Catholic Church.
 
I wouldn’t spend so much time worrying about what to call your family members. I would spend that time instead figuring out why you argue with them about their religion and hold such animosity towards them. Perhaps you have good reason. Perhaps you don’t. Either way it doesn’t seem healthy to me. I don’t fight about religion with my family. Ever. And we have some pretty strong opinionated people in my family from different backgrounds. It isn’t nice to fight or to do things intentionally that you know is going to be upsetting to another person and is of no other consequence but that… Life is too short to spend your time arguing.
 
Ardent_Fire said:
just want to be referred to as “the Church” or “The Church of Jesus Christ”
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That’s true with us (since we are, The Church), as well as a handful of Protestant denominations. Surely they have to acknowledge how that isn’t going to work out.
 
What we are to do is to do as Jesus said and turn the other cheek. We are also to pray for those who insult us.
 
Wow! They are misled / mistaken but describing them as ‘from Satan’ is a little harsh. The Jews also do not recognise Jesus’ divinity…would you call the chosen people ‘from Satan’ too?
 
My view, they’ve been pushing Mormon as the name for years now and suddenly get a new president who clearly dislikes the name, but far too late after their successful marketing push to use the very name he abhors.

And it’s a distinct name that sets their sect apart in no different a way than Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, etc… do for the specific denominations/groups of Christianity. The fact their leader now thinks Mormon has a connotation that means they’re not Christian to me just underlines the insecurity they have about their religion being, or not being, truly Christian.

Personally, I’m going to keep using Mormon if just for clarity sake seeing as they are not the exclusive claimants to being the Church of Jesus Christ, nor even the only church within their own Latter Day Saint restorationist family of faiths. Saying Church of Jesus Christ does not specify who you’re talking about… saying Mormon or LDS Church both do.
 
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It is kind to call people by the name they ask to be called.
Lemuel said:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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is quite a mouthful for casual conversation, ask the people you are talking with if you may use the shorthand “LDS” or simply “your faith” when you have a convo.
 
As a Catholic cleric who grew up in Utah, and have studied their faith extensively; I will not change how I refer to their church.

The current President has this preference, and that is what is behind it. All previous Presidents of their church were happy to be called “Mormons.”

One of their extra-biblical scriptures is named after a prophet called “Mormon.” This figure was a prophet, and also a sort of church historian who compiled what is in that book. They could just as easily been called “Pearl of Great Pricers,” or “Doctrine and Convenanters,” which are other parts of their fabricated scriptures.
Most Mormons are fine calling themselves Mormons, or “Latter Day Saints,” or “LDS” or even just short-hand “saints.”
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All of these things are PR / Marketing / shaping / forming tools to alter the way people view their cult. Yes, Mormonism is a cult.

The Church, of course refers to the Catholic Church (or the unified Church before the schism). Mormonism is polytheistic and denies the Trinity. They fail the first test of a Christian church, so they cannot properly be called one.

Their baptisms are invalid, and converts coming from Mormonism into the Church are baptized.

The true Church bears the four marks of being: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Protestant churches were part of the true Church at one time; Mormonism is an American-made, preposterous, amalgamation of freemasonry and parts of churches from the Adventism branch of Protestantism, mixed with fanciful legends. It should be called Joseph Smithism, because that is what it truly is.

So no, I won’t be changing how I refer to Mormonism or individual adherents thereof.

PS: Mormons have no problem referring to those who are not Mormon as “Gentiles,” this includes Jews.
 
Years ago, they didn’t refer to themselves as Christian… then they did. This is a pet project of their new leader and my personal opinion is to be accepted as more of a mainstream Christian Church. I truly wonder how many adherents will really object to continuing being called Mormon. I suppose it depends on how dogmatically they follow the president? They desperately want a seat at the evangelical table and to be relevant in the politics of the US.

I will just ask each member I know what they want to be called and what short version they prefer if they answer with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s way too much of a mouthful.
 
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