Church Plans to Drop Use of LDS as Shorthand Name

In a new move to identify their faith as Christian, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will soon issue a formal statement dropping the terms “LDS Church” and “LDS” as shorthand names.

Although the full name will remain unchanged, leaders of the church say that from now on the preferred shorthand or second reference will be simply “the church” or “the Church of Jesus Christ.”

The First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, the highest authorities in the 11-million-member church, will issue the statement in a week to 10 days, church spokesman Dale Bills said in a telephone interview Friday from Salt Lake City.

For years, the church’s detractors have charged that it is not a Christian body because it claims, among other unique beliefs, to be the only true and “restored” church of Jesus Christ. It also has its own scriptures, including the Book of Mormon, in addition to the New Testament.

To counter such criticism, the church has taken a series of steps to reemphasize its Christian roots. Several years ago it began to discourage the use of the name “Mormon Church.” In 1995, it changed its logo to place the words “Jesus Christ” in larger letters than the rest of its full name.

“This seems to me to be a further evolution on that thinking,” said Keith Atkinson, a church spokesman in Los Angeles.

Jan Shipps, a leading non-Mormon scholar and author of the newly published book “Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons,” said the church’s emphasis on itself as a Christian institution will further level the playing field in developing countries where it is competing for converts with other Christian denominations.

“There is no doubt that there is a history of anti-Mormon bias. It is latent, not open even now, and shows up in the mission fields and, on occasion, in the United States,” said Shipps, professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University--Purdue University, Indianapolis. “The name change undercuts the charge, especially made by the Southern Baptists and other evangelicals, that this is not a Christian movement.”

Bills said the terms “LDS” and “LDS Church” “tend to shift focus away from our faith in Jesus Christ and our belief that this is his restored church.”

As a matter of practice, Bills said, the church stopped using the terms more than a year ago in its news releases. But until now, no formal statement had been made. The change was first mentioned several days ago by one of the church’s general authorities in a New York Times interview.

A statement from Bills’ office Friday stressed the “centrality of the Savior” in the church’s beliefs. “The Lord, Jesus Christ, is at the center of our faith. He is the ‘chief cornerstone’ of our church. Hence, we believe that his church should be identified by his name,” the statement said.

Shipps agreed that the church’s motive in the change is to more correctly identify its beliefs, rather than to promote a marketing strategy.

Despite the new shorthand references, the names of some of the church’s books and institutions will remain unchanged, including the “Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.