Formerly Mormonly

Russell Nelson NYTimes screenshot

The current President of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints has decreed that the terms 'Mormon' and 'LDS' are not adequate and should no longer be applied in official and common discourse.

In the wake of that 2018 decision, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has changed its name to conform to their president-prophet's recommendation.

After more than 100 years, the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir is changing its name to “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.” The name modification, which drops the long-standing word "Mormon," follows an August 2018 statement by President Russell M. Nelson requesting the use of the full name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the choir’s sponsoring organization.

All those sporting tattoos reading 'Mormon Tabernacle Choir' should make the necessary changes to any offending body art.

As of 4APRIL2020, Mormons have a new logo, too.

Why, here, talk about things Mormon? The short answer - because the health of souls depends on an informed and civil conversation that doesn't avoid confronting the facts even when those facts are unpleasant to some or even many. Tolerance of falsehood permits the circumstances whereby souls are put at risk.

Russell M. Nelson, the 17th president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the effort he has proposed is not

1. a name change.
2. rebranding.
3. cosmetic.
4. a whim.

Mr. Nelson firmly defends his recommendation, stating 

(i)t is not inconsequential. Instead, it is a correction. It is the command of the Lord. Joseph Smith did not name the Church restored through him; neither did Mormon. It was the Savior Himself who said, “For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Mr. Nelson is basing his mandate and proposal on Mormon scripture, not any text from the canon of scripture accepted by Christians. And, the "Lord" to whom President Nelson is referring is not the Jesus Christ of the orthodox Christian Faith. So saith the Holy See with regards to Mormon baptism. Read on.

Why Mormon Baptism Is Invalid [JULY 17, 2001 Zenit.org]. Prompted by questions about Mormon practices, the Vatican recently confirmed that the sect´s baptism is invalid. Last month the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith noted the invalidity of the Mormons´ baptism given their misconception of the Trinity and, consequently, the identity of Christ. Father Luis Ladaria, a theologian at the Pontifical Gregorian University, explained today in L´Osservatore Romano the Church´s view about Mormon baptism. “The baptism of the Catholic Church and that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” the theologian said, “differ essentially as regards faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose name baptism is conferred and, at the same time, in regard to Christ, who instituted it.” Father Ladaria pointed out that even non-Catholics can administer baptism validly, as the minister of the sacrament is, in fact, Christ himself. But the baptizer must do so in the name of the Trinity and “with the intention of doing what the Church does,” he added. Joseph Smith founded the Mormons in New York state in (April 6) 1830. He was inspired to find the place were golden tablets were placed, which expressed the revelations of the prophet Mormon, written by him and his son Moroni. Mormonism is a “sacred history” rewritten in America, in which God revealed the “latter-day saints.” The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith´s response is based on research requested by the U.S. bishops. Father Ladaria said the formula used by the Mormons for baptism states that, “having received Christ´s mandate, I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” But there is no real invocation of the Trinity, the theologian said, because, for the Mormons, the “Father,” “Son” and “Holy Spirit” are not the three persons in which the one divinity subsists, but three gods who form a divinity. The term divinity itself has no “substantial” content, because, according to this Mormon concept, divinity has come into existence given that the three gods have decided to unite and form the divinity to bring about the salvation of man. This divinity and man share the same nature and are “substantially the same,” according to Mormon belief. Such divergence in doctrine implies, Father Landaria said, that the Mormon minister does not have the intention, when baptizing, of doing what the Catholic Church does when it confers baptism.

The 'Jesus' of Mormonism is not the Jesus of orthodox Christianity. Mormons, according to the LDS website,

hold the unique belief that God the Father and Jesus Christ are two distinct beings. Mormons believe that God and Jesus Christ are wholly united in their perfect love for us, but that each is a distinct personage with His own perfect, glorified body (see D&C 130:22).

Mormons believe that all men and women ever to be born, including Jesus Christ, lived with God as His spirit children before this life.

Careless theological language, that stuff is. And, let's not forget that Mormons (wrongly) believe that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers.

Jess L. Christensen, Institute of Religion director at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some—especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers. Jesus Christ was with the Father from the beginning. Lucifer, too, was an angel “who was in authority in the presence of God,” a “son of the morning.” (See Isa. 14:12; D&C 76:25–27.) Both Jesus and Lucifer were strong leaders with great knowledge and influence. But as the Firstborn of the Father, Jesus was Lucifer’s older brother. (See Col. 1:15; D&C 93:21.)

Jesus was Lucifer's older brother?! Yikes!

Galatians 1:8

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Given Mormonism's obvious departure from orthodox Christian teaching, President Nelson's declaration won't make his community a Christian body. No Christian group would teach that Satan (a creature, a fallen angel) is a brother of Jesus (the Eternal Logos, God the uncreated Second Person of the Blessed Trinity).

Gerald R. McDermott, Jordan-Trexler Professor or Religion at Roanoke College, in First Things magazine, wrote:

A fourth reason that keeps us from identifying the Jesus of the Book of Mormon with the Jesus of the New Testament is that there are intratextual inconsistencies, if you will, between the Jesus of the Book of Mormon and the Jesus of later Joseph Smith prophecies. The greatest concerns the Trinity. At the end of his life, in his King Follett funeral sermon (1844), Joseph Smith prophesied against the Trinity, saying that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate Gods. While this is now official doctrine, there are no signs of this rejection of the Trinity in the Book of Mormon.

The Athanasian Creed (Quicumque Vult; late 5th or early 6th Century), a declaration of the orthodox Christian Faith, written long before the Mormon religion appeared on the scene, clarifies

For as we are obliged by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person singly to be God and Lord, so too are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords. The Father was not made, nor created, nor generated by anyone. The Son is not made, nor created, but begotten by the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is not made, nor created, nor generated, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. There is, then, one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits. In this Trinity, there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less. The entire three Persons are coeternal and coequal with one another. So that in all things, as is has been said above, the Unity is to be worshipped in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity. He, therefore, who wishes to be saved, must believe thus about the Trinity.

As Father Ladaria said,

for the Mormons, the “Father,” “Son” and “Holy Spirit” are not the three persons in which the one divinity subsists, but three gods who form a divinity.

A mind curious for the facts will be disappointed at the discovery of the ever shifting sands of Mormon theology. The doctrinal gymnastics performed by Mormon presidents and prophets is a topic for a much more thorough post. It is, however, necessary to state for the record and the good of souls that, given the frequency and degree to which Mormons have modified fundamental doctrines, it is astonishing that any history-minded, fact-attentive individual could take seriously Mormon claims to legitimacy (as a christian body).

Apparently, Jesus' promise wasn't good enough for Joseph Smith and the other leaders of the Mormon religion. Mormons have willfully and entirely missed Jesus' establishment of the enduring Petrine ministry, which is universally testified to by the early (orthodox) Church. Take, for example, the acknowledgement of the Lord's teaching by Cyprian of Carthage.

The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven . . . ’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. . . . If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church? (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).

There is no doubt, given the witness of the Church Fathers, that the early Church was Catholic. The true Church remains Catholic. The successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, is His Holiness Pope Francis. Contrary to the Mormon claim, the Catholic Church never lost the Apostolic Succession.

Given the host of untenable changes to Mormon doctrine since the foundation of the Latter Day Saints community in the 1800s, it is understandable that a rebranding is necessary. In order for the LDS community to pretend at legitimacy, it must saturate the religious marketplace with updates in an attempt to bury the facts that contradict the Mormon narrative.

Reinvention is the only way forward for a group that has had its true identity exposed, and in a move Hollywood culture could envy, the Mormon corporation, i.e., the Latter Day Saints, must re-brand itself every now and then or risk losing its fan base.

[UPDATE 2020-04-26]

This just in... from Why I Am Catholic.

http://whyimcatholic.com/index.php/conversion-stories/mormon-converts/item/76-mormon-convert-thomas-smith

Thomas Smith ... was a former Mormon missionary turned Protestant minister who was received into the Catholic Church in 1996. Thomas lives on his family ranch in southeastern Idaho.

(T)he doctrine of the Trinity (...) is rejected by Mormons. They have what I call a "Dan Brown approach" to Church History that believes that Catholics "invented" the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. I wanted to show them that not only was the Trinity revealed in Sacred Scripture but believed and taught by the earliest Christians from the very beginning up to that fourth century council. To do that, I scoured libraries and electronic sources for early Christian writings, and discovered as so many Catholic converts before and after me, the Church Fathers. Not only did I find a clear and constant witness to the central truth of the Trinity, but a whole series of eye-opening teachings: Marian devotion, prayers to saints, the reservation of relics, a Church hierarchy of bishops, priests and deacons, and most importantly, the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.