If it’s an attempt to get other Christians to admit that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (*) is the one true church of Christ, and the others heretics, well, good luck with that. IME that would be surprising - they seem to have been trying to find common ground with the rest of the world in the last decade or two.
If it’s an attempt to get non-believers to give two hoots about the same issue, good luck with that too.
Could the current prophet maybe pull something like Joseph Smith did with those scrolls, which IIRC he said were in some language that’s never existed (reformed Egyptian?), and say that God hears the preferred name when someone says the acronym?
I was thinking, uh, less ‘sword’, and more ‘shield’. You know: imagine a guy saying “Mormon” as if it meant something other than “Christian”. And so the goal wouldn’t quite be to get One True Church Of Christ cachet; just to get “of Christ” cachet.
The first Mormon (or former Mormon) with whom I ever talked about Mormonism was a colleague of mine at one of my old jobs, in the late 1990s. She’d grown up in the faith, but left as an adult, and said that one of the things that they had been taught was, if a Mormon lived a sufficiently good and faithful life, when they died, they could become gods of their own worlds out in space. (I have no idea how widespread that belief was, or not.)
That is a VERY apt description. Smith even has that special fanfic way of completely missing the style of the original, but him thinking he’s nailed it because he uses some of the same catchphrases, as Baker described. I think you hit the nail in the coffin on the head.
The church wants this name change malarkey talked about instead of the various troubles it’s having right now; BYU campus cops now have the same requirements under FOIA as any other law enforcement in the state; BYU students who report being sexually assaulted are routinely turned in to the Honor Code office to see what the victim’s part was and how they should repent; the church knew about a bishop assaulting women and did nothing about it, in fact they protected him from consequences; these are just those w/ an active lawsuit.
There’s also bad press around ProtectLDSChildren’s movement to end bishops asking sexual questions of children as young as 8; the church’s discriminatory policy on children of LGBT couples (making them wait to be baptized until they’re both 18 and have stated they don’t agree w/ their parents’ lifestyle, while everyone else can get dunked at age 8); the information that the church holds $32 Billion in stocks alone while its charitable giving is a fraction of that (and well below the 10% they require of their members to be able to fully worship).
They’d MUCH rather talk about semantics than real issues. It’s a distraction tactic.
It might be none of the above. It might be a ruse to distract other Morons, to keep them from (a) ratting and (b) leaving.
Probably the best way to fix the Latter-day Saints is to publish their real doctrines and real practices widely. For ex-Morons to give detailed accounts of what goes on.
It’s easier to nail the infamous Mormon green jello to walls than to clarify Mormon theology.
Kolob is actually the star closest to where God lives. After the second coming, everyone worthy and all animals which have died will be resurrected (happily including Spot who was taken to the farm, but sadly including all the cockroaches as well – they never specified this, but it’s been said to include all animals) here on Earth!
Who knows. It could very well be the bubble the top leaders live in, in which they think that people outside the bubble will pay attention to them.
But only men who have multiple wives can have planets, if Brigham Young is to be believed. Of course, he also believed that Adam was God.
How wide is the internet? That’s where everything is, right down to thetemple rituals and their proscribed costumes, secret handshakes, pay stubs (unpaid clergy my butt), new names, various rewrites of the Book of Abraham, accounts from Smith’s wives (even the 14 year-old, I think) - it’s all online (except footage of a Second Anointing where a man is made sinless and his place in the Celestial Kingdom sure). Stuff that everyday Mormons weren’t taught is out in the open for them to stumble across if they do what they’ve been asked not to do - research to satisfy their questions instead of ‘reading the Book of Mormon every day’ to strengthen their testimony.
This church meets theBITE model of a cult. And I’m a little non-Mormon island in a Mormon sea here in Utah.
ETA - to add to TokyoBayer’s post, it should go w/o saying that women can only be sealed to one man at a time (on earth or in the afterlife). She has to get her first husband’s permission to be sealed to a second husband after divorce, if they were sealed in the temple.
It’s pretty easy now to find where all the bodies are buried, as it were. There are many sources online as well as ex-Mormon forums and podcasts.
Despite this, most of the faithful remain so, although there is very little growth from converts outside of a few developing countries.
Checking a few places online, it looks like the ex-Mormons are mocking this, as anticipated; the liberal Mormons are rolling their collective eyes; and the TBM (true believing Mormons) are now TBmoTCoJCoLDS, although they would not like the abbreviation.
I grew up Mormon, not anymore, really don’t have anything against them.
This is a dumb move. They’ve done too many campaigns self-identifying as “Mormon”. For the most part, if you didn’t like Mormons before, this isn’t going to make you like them any more. If you liked them before, this dilutes “the brand”.
My guess is when Nelson dies (which can’t be too long hes 93 ffs), this will go right back to the way it was.
What are they going to call the people against the church? Anti Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Sainters?
