"So, are you a Mormon?"

No, I'm not.

There was a time, not very long ago, when I readily would have answered, "Yes, I am." Regular readers may remember that I had a link here on the blog that identified me as a Mormon.

But that changed at the beginning of this month, during a session of General Conference. There, a man I recognize as a prophet of God rose and spoke about the problem with "Mormon" as a signifier for the Church and its members.

My faith has been branded with the name "Mormon" for a long time. Indeed, in the earliest days of the Church, the epithets "Mormon" and "Mormonite" were used against members of the Church as a way of mocking them for their belief in modern scripture -- kind of the same way Jesus' disciples were first called "Christians" in Antioch (Acts 11:26) or the way Paul was accused as "a ringleader of the sect [in some translations, this word is rendered as "cult"] of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5). Trying to put a brave face on it, members of the Church started co-opting the word "Mormons" to describe themselves -- even naming their world-famous choral group "the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" -- but no longer.

See, the full name of my church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I realize it's long and unwieldy, and people -- especially the news media -- like to shorten it: "the Mormon Church," "The LDS Church," "The Church of the Latter-day Saints," and so forth. But there's a problem with all these shortened forms: they cut out the most important part of the church's name, which is Jesus Christ -- the being I love, follow and do my admittedly broken best to emulate. We believe our faith is a modern (or "latter-day") restoration of the primitive church Jesus founded while he and his apostles were still on the earth. We further believe that the full name of the Church was given through prophecy by Jesus Christ himself -- so yes, it's kind of important to us! But our church has become so widely known as "the Mormon Church" that it's possible for people who don't know better to pose a question that, if one knows the proper name of the Church, seems ludicrous: "Are Mormons Christians?"

So no, I'm not "a Mormon." I don't worship Mormon, and this isn't Mormon's church. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you want something shorter, you can call me LDS or a Latter-day Saint. Or you can just call me "a Christian," because that's what I'm trying to be.

Thanks for your understanding.