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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints recently released a revised style guide, in which is discourages the use of the abbreviation "lds". Perhaps we should rename the tag to accommodate this.

Some options are:

  • would obviously accommodate the style guide. The problem is that it is too long to be an actual tag.
  • or would also be consistient with the style guide.
  • The style guide states "When describing the combination of doctrine, culture and lifestyle unique to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the term 'the restored gospel of Jesus Christ' is accurate and preferred." This seams in line with how the tag is currently used, so the tag would be another option. An issue with this though is that the term "restored gospel of Jesus Christ" isn't well known outside latter day saint circles.

What do you all think?

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    While there is a rather mainstream baptistic denomination called "Church of Christ", generic labels like that and also "Church of God" are loved by heretical cults, like the Church of God and the Iglesia ni Cristo. If the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was seeking greater legitimacy they should embrace their history and not seek a suspicious sounding generic name.
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Oct 8, 2018 at 22:20

3 Answers 3

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According to the style guide, is an acceptable reference to members of the Church. This could perhaps be used as a tag.

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    This seems like the best compromise. It uses a term that the style guide says is acceptable while also being understood by the current culture (which seems to be the main concern raised by the other answers).
    – Thunderforge
    Nov 26, 2018 at 3:12
  • It makes sense to make a change, but perhaps it's too early to decide what final set of tags will be used. If latter-day-saints is a recommended form, why not make it a synonym of lds for now, with the option of making it the primary tag if that's the consensus. I hope we won't need to distinguish between mormon and latter-day-saints, but it is possible since the former is a broader term.
    – Bit Chaser
    Jan 15, 2019 at 2:36
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I know that's in the style guide, but how much "real world traction" does it have? Are people actually going to type it? (doesn't matter with synonyms, but you do see it on the main page)

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of American Christianity knows LDS is Mormons. Church of Jesus Christ sounds much more like Church of Christ (which someone else has dibs on).

You could just as easy replace "Catholicism" with "Universal Church of Jesus Christ", which would be accurate, but not useful on the site.

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  • But the Catholic Church doesn't actually believe it's the Universal Church, because it recognises the Orthodox Churches as valid churches. It recognises their sacraments at least. I assume it doesn't recognise LDS sacraments?
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Oct 8, 2018 at 22:06
  • @curiousdannii Catholic means Universal. Jesus Christ being the founder, seems like a natural fit in English, and I have heard her called that before. Anyway, I don't know if we honor Mormon Baptism, the bar is very low though and re-Baptism isn't a thing in Catholicism. We definitely honor the Sacrament of marriage (at least since polygamy was abolished). A pair of Mormons wouldn't have to get re-married in the Catholic Church if they converted, but they may have their marriages blessed (I think there's a better name for it).
    – Peter Turner Mod
    Oct 9, 2018 at 3:43
  • What about "Reformed Church of Jesus Christ"? That seems less likely to be confused.
    – PyRulez
    Oct 10, 2018 at 0:48
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    Maybe to those in the Church, I don't think a Church can survive this level of disambiguation. I give that style guide maybe a year to be forgotten, probably not worth our time to change the tags around. If a contingent of users want to start tagging their questions with something preferred to LDS and it catches on, then maybe we can make it a synonym. But I believe changing it because of this meta post would be to the detriment of the site.
    – Peter Turner Mod
    Oct 10, 2018 at 1:13
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    @PyRulez lds.org explicit says they are "restored" not "reformed". Also there apparently was a breakoff LDS group in the past that called themselves the "Reformed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", so it would not be clear name/tag.
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Oct 13, 2018 at 1:15
  • @PyRulez, a reference for curiousdannii's statement: lds.org/topics/christians?lang=eng
    – NeutronStar
    Oct 31, 2018 at 14:08
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    Would changing from [lds] to [latter-day-saints] be acceptable? As Joshua's answer says, that is a term that the style guide is okay with.
    – Thunderforge
    Nov 26, 2018 at 3:10
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    @Thunderforge I think that would make the most sense
    – Peter Turner Mod
    Nov 26, 2018 at 14:25
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I think the church is eventually going to backpedal and accept LDS as an official acronym, but until then I see your point and it's virtually nil effort for us to make a synonym of one of your tag suggestions. I think is probably the best.

The tag excerpt should make it very clear that it is an official name per the style guide for "LDS". The tag wiki, if someone feels inclined to edit it, can point to the recent church proclamations and desires for its nomenclature.

People who type "lds" while tagging will receive feedback of the style guide and their questions will automatically be tagged with the corrected version. Searches will also be unaffected.

As an aside note, I think we'll just end up reversing this in a few years, but out of respect we should try our best to call people by their own names for themselves.

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