Mormon, LDS, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, what is it?

What's in a name? Rebranding doesn't work in this case.

What’s in a Name?

Many readers may wonder at my propensity to use LDS instead of the name Mormon to refer to the religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I do it out of respect for the same reason that I don’t use the N-word for African Americans.

Many early converts to Joseph Smith’s new religion were brought to his faith through reading the Book of Mormon (BOM). The BOM was likely his most visible unique selling proposition, considering the competition from all the other preachers during his day and the revivalists roaming the countryside.

As a result, people began to refer to early LDS converts as Mormons, - but this was not meant to be a nice neutral descriptive label. The term Mormon was used primarily as a profoundly insulting pejorative meant to insinuate that you were low class, uneducated, poor, a heretic, and a moron (which was basically what people thought of Joseph Smith and his early converts at the time.) It was widely seen and used as a term of ridicule - and sadly, 200+ years later - nothing has changed. It was at the time quite similar to using the ‘N’-word - we all know which one - to refer to Americans of African descent. And like with African Americans, followers of J.S. internalized the name and used it themselves. Similarly, When used by another LDS member, it was not offensive, but when used by outsiders, it was considered offensive.

By the end of the 19th century, it would go on to pick up additional connotations such as: