This revelation concerning the name of the church has really fascinated me. I was far too busy the last time this happened (in 2001) to pay attention, but watching this in real time is a flashback to my youth and how pronouncements from on high were so unquestioningly accepted as a sign of divine intervention.
Discussions on the various Mormon boards are rampant. Members on the faithful boards are out competing themselves on how much they always hated the term “Mormon,” and studiously ignore any negative comments, questions and contradictions. One replacement term faithful members are now using is “LDS Christian.”
From President Nelson’s sermon:
Isn’t this great? Members now have a chance to save the world!
God could have been blessing the Earth and the inhabitants thereon to alleviate poverty, famine and disease, but evil people (such as the last 180 years of Mormon prophets, shhhh) were too busy doing Satan’s work by using one simple name.
What a difference it makes to have God’s spokesman on Earth!
Another big brouhaha is the call by this same prophet for women (and only women) to go on a social media “fast” for 10 days. Why only women? Well, you know how them girls love to gossip (sarcasm smilie here)?
Slate had an article about it, including the story of a Utah woman who runs a successful online business which is heavily dependent on her online promotions. Despite the thousands of dollars of losses this is costing her, she’s going ahead, unquestioningly and without looking at any purpose behind the proposal. Yup, nothing has changed from when I was a kid. God said it, let’s do it.
There has always been an option to resign by submitting paperwork, but the church made it extremely inconvenient and quite a hassle. The headquarters would insist that it’s a local matter (which it’s not), bishops would want to discuss the matter (which they have no legal right to) or delay it (according to established judicial precedence, resignations are effective the moment they are submitted).
Quitmormon (I wonder if they will change to Quitthechurchofjesuschristoflatter-daysaints.com) has just made the process easier since the site is run by an attorney doing this as volunteer service. The Supreme Court has ruled that people have the unilateral right to resign memberships from religious organizations, and the church probably now doesn’t want any more bad press.
The number of actual resignations is pretty low. Most ex-Mormons simply stopped going and no longer consider themselves members rather than formally resign.
Because I didn’t want to be bothered by dealing with local leaders either back in Japan or here in Taiwan, I didn’t go through the process myself. Now there is that website, I submitted my resignation last month and am waiting for it to get processed.
The church holds many numbers (such as attendance, resignations and finance) as secret as the temple handshakes and oaths, so no one outside the organization really knows…
Local areas go up and down, depending on a number of factors, especially as children grow up. We were just visiting my aunt back in Salt Lake City. When they moved there, it was a new subdivision with several hundred(!) kids in primary. Now, less than 50 and they are combining wards there. New subdivisions are expanding ward.
However, the overall trend worldwide is that, despite a huge missionary force, Mormons still having greater numbers of children than the national average, and concentrating on growth in poor, third world countries, the church is barely keeping up with the natural growth of population.
The LDS church is losing ground in Europe and East Asia, despite thousands of missionaries. For example, in the UK, there were 373 congregations (wards and branches) in 2003, but only 327 in 2017, despite having six missions (approximately 1,200 missionaries). “Inactive” members are not removed from the rolls, so the total membership numbers may grow, but the number attending is declining. Japan with seven missions (1,400 missionaries) has seen its congregations decrease from a high of 317 in 1999 to 261 now.
The US is holding ground in the US, but not growing as a percentage of the population. In 2017 California (the state with the second largest number of Mormons) has essentially the same number of congregations as it did in 2002. Utah congregations grow by just a little less than the population rate of the state as the percentage of Mormons there very slowly declines.
So why does anyone care about this? Obviously the Mormon church and its members do, because Mormonism is an apocalyptic religion and the true (Mormon) gospel needs to be taken to every “nation, kindred, tongue, and people” so that Christ can come again. Consequently, official numbers concerning attendance and the number of active members are kept secret.
Fortunately, as the prophet just proclaimed, God promises this will heepen if they will just stop offending Him by saying “Mormon.”