Most of us should be able to sympathize with Mormons who must be irked and fatiqued by the media coverage of Warren Jeffs, the fugitive leader of the Fundamenalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.First of all, with as much national coverage as the polygamous sect (the Fundamentalists) has gotten and with those in some parts of the country less familiar with the distinctions between them and the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints, there will be incorrect and misleading reporting. CNN, for example, superimposed Jeffs’ photo over an image of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. Invariably, too, the background reporting includes a rehashing of the outlawing of polygamy by the Mormon Church in 1890 leading to statehood for Utah. Mormons must get tired of hearing that.
The fact that the two groups share so much in common, including the Book of Mormon, comparable organizational structure and common roots keeps the two disparate groups being thought of together. So the Mormon Church last weekend appealed to the media to keep things straight and stop using phrases like Mormon sect for the fundamentalists.
Alas, since Jeffs name was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, the Mormon Church has found itself having to field a lot of media calls. He’s not our guy, don’t you understand, the Mormon media staff has to remind callers.
A few years ago, church leaders in Salt Lake City, as I recall, urged us in the media to simply call them The Church of Jesus Christ. Many us in the media wished the Associated Press and the Tribune would adopt a style change that would allow us to use Latter-day Saints and/or LDS routinely, as do the papers in Salt Lake City and elsewhere. The term Mormon is both embraced and avoided by members of the church, as I talk to them. I have come to use LDS routinely in conversation, though the editors won’t let me use it in news stories. Some years ago, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who broke away from the Mormon Church in 1852, adopted the strikingly different name: The Community of Christ. About six years later, it is still not commonly known.
Early in my religion writing career, I remember identifying the Reorganized folks Mormons and was sternly corrected by readers. It’s all about keeping the cousins straight.
