The Real COJCOLDS

Why The Long Name

It probably confuses people to no end but Mormons don't like being called Mormons. I know it's what everyone calls us but it was never meant to be the name of our religion. I'm about to explain the historical and contemporary reasons why the official name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Going back to the 19^th century. More specifically April 1830. In Kirkland, Ohio, the church is officially organized. Joseph Smith, our leader and official communicator with God at the time held a meeting.

This meeting was to decide the name of the church. It was began with a prayer to invite God to reveal what he wanted His church to be called. Joseph Smith, as we believe was speaking the words of God, told everyone present that the name of the church must be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

This is for two reasons.

If the name of the church isn't in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ, then it isn't his church. According to that revelation, if the church were named after any other person it would be that person's church and not Christ's.

The second half of the name describes who was in the church. Our religion defines a saint as anyone who follows all the doctrines of Christ. We also believe that after the last of the original twelve apostles died, this doctrine was altered or lost completely. It is the belief of members of our church that Joseph Smith restored these ancient doctrines of Christ. Therefore we are Latter Day Saints.

Unfortunately, even in the 19^th century there was misunderstanding that led to derision and slurs. Someone who wasn't part of our religion happened to overhear a leader in our church say that "Mormon" means "more good". From their point of view, members of the church thought they were better than everyone else. This person started using the word Mormon as a derogatory nickname.

Soon it caught on with everyone that came in contact with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and they began calling them Mormons. And it wasn't a compliment. I won't say it's on par with the 'N' word but it definitely wasn't meant kindly by the people who coined the term.

Now that I've explained why we don't like or are supposed to call ourselves Mormon, I have some more things to be persnickety about.

Why don't we just call ourselves Latter Day Saints? Because our current leaders have told us not to. Why?

It has something to do with some splinter groups. Don't get me wrong, they're not all bad. In fact one of them has been running the historical sites associated with the main branch of the faith.

One used to be known as the R-LDS church, thats short for Reformed Latter Day Saint. Their belief is that Joseph Smith lost the ability to talk with God around the time the church left Kirkland, Ohio. They became an entirely different sect and because of a second group I'm about to mention, they changed their name to Friends of Christ during the 21^st century.

Another group splintered of the main church is the F-LDS. This stands for Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint. Their sect splintered off after what was left of the main church immigrated to what was to become Utah. They left because they got told practicing polygamy wasn't going to be part of the religion any more. They are also the group that is the subject of the live action soap opera reality TV show "Sister Wives". The F-LDS has no problem being called Mormon. They are also lead by the bigamist Jeff Warren. Who has been arrested many times.

Just so we're clear The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not affiliated with the F-LDS nor do we want to be.

These are the reasons why we insist on calling ourselves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It's the reason our church name is all run together into one long URL. Sorry it's not convenient, catchy or easy to remember but it's our preferred name.

Think of it like this you have a company with a specific name. You have a good product and your customers are happy. Then, either a disgruntled employee or an outright imposter starts using a name so similar to your company and providing a cheap not quality knock off of what you originally made. Would you want to be confused with those that aren't you? No! Not if you were normal.

That's the analogy I have to explain what I'm trying to get at. I hope this rambling has helped clarify why we go by such a long name.

Come back next Sunday for the next entry.