Why the 'Mormon' church changed its name. Nelson says it's not about rebranding
“When the messages come during the dark of night, Russell M. Nelson reaches for his lighted pen and takes dictation from the Lord.” - CNN
Given the changes made by leaders of the Mormon church over the decades, including something like 25000 changes and corrections to the Book of Mormon itself, somehow I’m of a mind to view this habit of Nelson’s and his predecessors in the same way as a lawyer I met once described Roe V. Wade—as the result, perhaps, of late night pizza and not any legitimate knowledge.
One point of reference, regarding those changes in the Book of Mormon, is that I had the chance to look at a BYU student newspaper back in the early 1990s, and one interesting thing was ads soliciting old copies of that work. One could positively view it as someone interested in its history, or (my view) very negatively as “people trying to hide the fact that Mormon editors had to correct errors in grammar and even theology in the work.” One particular one that the late Walter Martin liked was a Catholic-ish mention of Mary as the “Mother of God”, which was corrected in later revisions of the Book of Mormon.
In short, calling it “LDS” instead of “Mormon” is rebranding, IMO.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion