{"id":3953,"date":"2020-09-17T22:59:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T04:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/?p=3953"},"modified":"2023-08-09T15:47:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T21:47:45","slug":"why-are-some-still-using-mormon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/faith\/why-are-some-still-using-mormon\/","title":{"rendered":"Mormon Isn\u2019t Our Name. Why Are Some Still Using It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1831, one year after the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the public came up with a new term for the so-called &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sidneyrigdon.com\/dbroadhu\/ma\/midatla0.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proselytes of the Golden Bible<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d: Mormons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The nickname, of course, refers to the Book of Mormon, which members of the Church consider scripture alongside the Bible. During the early years of the faith, more often than not the term Mormon was used pejoratively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the Church has gone through periods of embracing the term \u201cMormon\u201d (for example, the \u201cI\u2019m a Mormon\u201d campaign), in October 2018, Russell M. Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/general-conference\/2018\/10\/the-correct-name-of-the-church?lang=eng\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">announced a new emphasis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the full name of the Church, including a specific and explicit request to stop using the term \u201cMormon\u201d as an identifier for the faith altogether. President Nelson made reference to Latter-day Saint scripture which states: \u201cFor thus shall <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/ensign\/1979\/01\/i-have-a-question\/what-changes-have-been-made-in-the-name-of-the-church-its-full-designation-does-not-appear-in-the-revelations-until-1838-d-and-c-115-4?lang=eng#note4a\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">my<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/ensign\/1979\/01\/i-have-a-question\/what-changes-have-been-made-in-the-name-of-the-church-its-full-designation-does-not-appear-in-the-revelations-until-1838-d-and-c-115-4?lang=eng#note4b\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">church<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/ensign\/1979\/01\/i-have-a-question\/what-changes-have-been-made-in-the-name-of-the-church-its-full-designation-does-not-appear-in-the-revelations-until-1838-d-and-c-115-4?lang=eng#note4c\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saints<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since President Nelson\u2019s announcement, most changes have involved institutional shifts, including dropping \u201cMormon\u201d from \u201cMormon Tabernacle Choir,\u201d changing Mormon.org to ComeUntoChrist.org, and ending the \u201cI\u2019m a Mormon\u201d campaign. Church members, meanwhile, have begun referring to themselves as Latter-day Saints or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Church also released an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org\/style-guide\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">updated style guide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> requesting that media no longer use \u201cMormon\u201d or \u201cLDS.\u201d By March of 2019, the Associated Press style guide, the standard for news journalists, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/APStylebook\/status\/1104071713476755457\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">endorsed many of the same recommendations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. How has the press done with regard to following the Church\u2019s request and the AP\u2019s recommendations?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Together with the Elizabeth McCune Institute, we looked at coverage of the Church for a five-month period between July 15, 2019, and December 15, 2019, by the twenty largest news websites in the United States. What we found was that journalists who wrote negative articles about the Church or its members were more likely to use the term \u201cMormon\u201d than other style guide terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Methodology and Limitations<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We limited our analysis to the twenty largest websites. Articles were analyzed to determine how they complied with the Church\u2019s style-guide recommendations. We categorized the articles based on whether or not they included positive, negative, or neutral editorial content about the Church. Our examination relied entirely on written web content\u2014excluding other ways many people receive news today (television, print newspaper). We also didn\u2019t look at the outlets that report on the Church most often, such as the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, or various blogs and other forums. Thus, the study doesn\u2019t attempt to assess how readers are experiencing the name of the Church on the web generally, but rather how national journalists and writers at widely read outlets are choosing to represent the name of the Church.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Using the Full Name of The Church<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between July 15, 2019, and December 14, 2019, the twenty largest news websites in the United States published 421 articles that referenced the Church. Two hundred sixty-five of the articles focused significant attention on the Church; 156 included only incidental mentions (e.g. \u201cA robbery occurred across the street from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, 180 of the 421 articles (43%) adhered in large measure to the Church\u2019s style guide recommendations. With regard to articles that focused more directly on the Church only about 94 of 265 articles (35%) adhered to the style guide recommendations. Among the full-set of articles, 52 of the articles refer to the Church in the article\u2019s title. Of those, 5 (10%) refer to the Church according to any of the style-guide recommended names for the Church, 4 (8%) refer to the \u201cLDS Church.\u201d The remaining 43 (83%) used the term \u201cMormon.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While some journalists and outlets are correctly using the recommended name of the Church, many are still using the term \u201cMormon,\u201d particularly in headlines. Why has the usage standard been adopted in some cases but not in others?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of these findings may involve different standards across publications. It\u2019s also possible that different writers vary in their level of understanding about the Church\u2019s name. We also explored another possibility in our analysis.\u00a0 Among the 180 articles that followed the Church\u2019s recommended style guide, 10 (6%) included negative editorial content. In comparison, of the 240 articles that did not follow the recommended style guide, 70 (29%) included negative editorial content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"perfect-pullquote vcard pullquote-align-right pullquote-border-placement-left\"><blockquote><p>There is a marked correlation between using the term Mormon and negative editorial content about the Church. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, if you encountered an article in the popular press with negative editorial content about the Church between July 15 and December 15, 2019, there was an 86% chance (69 of 80) that it included the word \u201cMormon.\u201d Whereas if you read an article during this same period that mentioned the Church without negative editorial content the word \u201cMormon\u201d was only used 46% of the time (157 of 341). From the five-month data set we analyzed, there is a marked correlation between using the term Mormon and negative editorial content about the Church.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Sentiment Analysis Across the Data Set<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our analysis, we also looked at articles that were either neutral or positive. Those articles were much more likely to refer to the Church as recommended by the recent style-guide. Again, by comparison, articles suggesting that the Church or its actions were negative in some way tended to use the term Mormon more frequently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is true even comparing similar articles from the same outlet where one follows the Church\u2019s guideline and the other does not. For instance, the LA times carried <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2019-07-26\/how-roland-spongberg-turned-one-el-pollo-loco-into-a-192-restaurant-empire\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an article profiling<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ronald Spongberg, a successful restaurant franchisee and also an active member of the Church.\u00a0 Along with its neutral to positive tone about the Church, the article uses its full name near the end of the article.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In comparison, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/movies\/story\/2019-08-07\/them-that-follow-snake-wrangling\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">another LA Times article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about director Britt Poulton\u2019s film <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Them That Follow<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> discusses how Poulson \u201creally struggled\u201d growing up in the Church. Along with its negative discussion of the Church, this article uses the word \u201cMormon\u201d early in the piece. Poulson uses the full name of the Church in describing her religious background in other pieces, such as this <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/womenandhollywood.com\/sundance-2019-women-directors-meet-britt-poulton-them-that-follow\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWomen in Hollywood\u201d interview<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The way different publications approach the same story can also be illuminating. When Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart, came out as gay, reports of the story that included negative editorializing regarding the Church such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/feature\/nbc-out\/ed-smart-dad-kidnapping-survivor-elizabeth-smart-says-there-s-n1099151\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NBC News\u2019 story<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, used the word \u201cMormon\u201d more frequently, while reporting that focused on other elements of the story and did not include negative editorializing, such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2019\/08\/16\/ed-smart-elizabeth-smart-father-comes-out-gay-announces-divorce\/2027981001\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">USA Today\u2019s story<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, largely used the Church\u2019s full name.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What we looked at is only a snapshot in time, and will require further study to examine how journalists and news outlets choose to represent the Church across media platforms and over a longer period of time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Use-of-the-Name-of-The-Church-of-Jesus-Christ-of-Public-Square-Mag.pdf\">Use of the Name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints study<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Use-of-the-Name-Data-Set-Public-Square-Mag.pdf\">Data Set\u00a0<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two years since President Nelson requested discontinuation of the term \u201cMormon\u201d to describe the Church, some journalists still opt to use it.  Why? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[476,468],"tags":[129,601,63,122,128],"coauthors":[243],"class_list":["post-3953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-state","category-faith","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-mormon","tag-name-of-the-church","tag-russell-m-nelson","tag-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mormon Isn\u2019t Our Name. Why Are Some Still Using It? - Public Square Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two years since President Nelson requested discontinuation of the term \u201cMormon\u201d to describe the Church, some journalists still opt to use it. Why?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/faith\/why-are-some-still-using-mormon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mormon Isn\u2019t Our Name. Why Are Some Still Using It? - Public Square Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two years since President Nelson requested discontinuation of the term \u201cMormon\u201d to describe the Church, some journalists still opt to use it. 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