Proposal to replace `denomination=mormon` with `denomination=latter-day_saint`

[hoserab]

@Minh_Nguyen

I’m sympathetic to the idea that denomination=mormon could remain as a theoretical catch-all for places of worship of undetermined affiliation, but my sense is that this will be very, very rare in practice. The on-the-ground rule tilts very heavily in favor of other terms. I don’t think you’ll see a sign on a church that says “Church of Christ” and make the logical leap that, obviously, this church belongs to a Mormon denomination.

Oh I agree it would be very rare in practice; after all, anecdotally I’d wager that 95+% of all “Mormon” facilities around the world are affiliated with the “mainstream LDS Church”.

Likewise, to your point, I do also agree that it isn’t going to be immediately obvious to a ‘gentile’ exactly what denomination a “Church of Christ” belongs. However, I don’t think it’s appropriate to tag it with denomination=latter_day_saint either. In keeping denomination=mormon but introducing =latter_day_saint for the “mainstream” church, we’re doing two things:

1. striving to be more respectful to the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by using a tag more specific to their particular church, and,
2. striving to be respectful of all other sects of Mormonism by not explicitly grouping them with the LDS Church, and,
3. vice versa.

For instance with respect to the second and third points, do members of the “mainstream” LDS Church want to be associated with the FLDS? I’m guessing no. And frankly the proverbial cat is out of the bag with respect to splintered-off sects: they may not be big, but there are a bunch of them. Some of the biggest, most notorious Mormon communities in Canada are populated by ‘splinter’ groups, e.g. Bountiful, BC (populated originally by members of the FLDS, whose bishop was excommunicated by Warren Jeffs in 2002). I think it would be presumptuous of us to group any and all Mormonist adherents under “Latter-day Saints” when many of the splinter groups are vehemently disavowed by the LDS Church, and conversely many of the splinter groups believe the LDS Church had been “corrupted” and theirs is the “true” Mormonist belief system (yadda yadda yadda…).