The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is renaming its mobile apps to align with the faith’s campaign to get rid of “Mormon” and “LDS” as shorthand nicknames for the religion.
The Thursday announcement comes after the Utah-based church in 2018 began moving away from the widely recognized “Mormon” and “LDS” monikers. Church President Russell M. Nelson said the Lord communicated to him the importance of the faith’s full name and that removing it from titles is “a major victory for Satan.”
“LDS Tools” is now “Member Tools” and “Mormon Messages” is “Inspirational Messages” along with several other app changes. Other services and applications will simply remove “LDS” from the name.
The church also said the terms “LDS” and “Latter-day Saint” should not be used to qualify objects such as temples, scriptures or doctrine. “Instead of ‘Latter-day Saint temples,’ for example, the appropriate references would be ‘“temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ or ‘house of the Lord,’" the church said in a news release.
Church leaders have said, however, that they prefer the term “Latter-day Saints” when referring to members.
Earlier this year, The Associated Press updated its style guidelines to more closely align with the wishes of Latter-day Saint leaders.
“Use the full name of the church on first references, with ‘the church,’ ‘church members,’ ‘members of the faith’ preferred on second and later reference[s],” advises the wire service’s online style edition.
However, AP still allows for the use of “Mormons” and “Mormon” when “necessary for space or clarity or in quotations or proper names.”
The Salt Lake Tribune contributed to this story.
