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I started a light-hearted blog entry on a celestial sex topic, but my mind kept going back to Thursday when the LDS church issued another statement with regard to the term “fundamentalist Mormon,” and other uses of the word “Mormon” as associated with outside groups. As I applaud and support the church’s efforts to distance themselves from these sects, I do not believe they can claim ownership of such a broad word and in fact the U.S patent and trademark office agrees with me as they denied their request for a trademark(except when it’s used for the church’s educational services ). As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I’ve spent the past three years researching the FLDS church as part of a book and for several decades these “peculiar people” have proudly identified themselves as “fundamentalist Mormons” since they quite literally follow the teachings of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon to the extreme. So where did the controversial “FM” term come from? Well one source reports that in the 1940’s LDS Apostle Mark E. Petersen (why is there always a middle initial?) coined the phrase the mainstream church is now trying to do away with.
The other element I find fascinating is that I can recall a letter being read from the pulpit in February of 2001 where we were all asked to refer to ourselves at “Latter-Day Saints,” and not “Mormons.” Overnight the “M” word disappeared from our Utah lexicon replaced by “LDS” at every turn. Then on March 6th of the same year while I was working for the church, I received a press release that said we were only to refer to the church by its full name or “The Church of Jesus Christ,” and “the church” on second and shorter references. Again, the word “Mormon” was only said in hushed tones between friendly co-workers, but in the outside world nothing changed and the world went on using "Mormon" as it always had- to describe any follower of Joseph Smith.
So those of you reading this from the plush carpeted top floors of 50 N. South Temple in Salt Lake City, please continue to do your best to distance us from the “renegade sects” festering on the Utah/Arizona border, Texas, Canada, Mexico, Colorado and a few Southern states, but just know the word “Mormon” is something you can’t reclaim after you’ve spent years telling us we should throw it away.
fMh Anniversary
8 months ago
4 comments:
I disagree cause when you use "mormon" people think of the mainstream church, not the FLDS, but all the changes are confusing.
what was interesting was that the same year they proudly annouced that we were "latter-Day saints" they also announced the start of mormon.org. Which was to answer general questions about the church. So even in their eyes that's who/what we are. Mormons all the way. I understand them distancing themselves but, RLDS, FLDS and all other sects pulled from mainstream mormonism call themselves that also so of course the media is confused!
You're right, that was launched Oct. 2001. The website's target is people unfamiliar with the church so "Mormon" was a good choice for a URL.
So do you think there's such a thing as a "fundamentalist Mormon?"
I confess that I only think of the mainstream church when people say mormon but really I guess it would apply to anyone who believed in the Book of Mormon wouldn't it? So I guess there is a fundamentalist mormon same as there is an "orthodox" jew as compared to a less strict jew. And as much as the church wants to distance themselves (and should!) I don't think they are going to be able to by crying "foul" when it comes to the name. It almost seems the more they do -- the more linked they are.
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