On my mission in Romania, we just said, "The Church of Jesus Christ." If we tried to say more, people would literally zone out. However, what we said confused them because they thought that they belonged to the 'Church of Jesus Christ'. Or, the more thoughtful folks would think that everyone belonged to the 'Church of Jesus Christ'. We would say, "Maybe so, but this is just our name. It's just what we're called, so even if you belong to the 'Church of Christ' too, the name of our church just happens to be 'The Church of Jesus Christ'.
Pundits, and many of them have of late named the church - or tried to - on tv or on the radio, tend to say the latter-day saint church. This is okay, it's better than the "mormon church". However, I think LDS would be better. It's an abbreviation, 'The Latter-day Saint' church is no abbreviation - it's like they're trying to rename our church!
So, I propose that in casual conversation if we are discussing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we don't want to say all that all the time, we should just say "For short - the Church of Jesus Christ".
Not, "My church" or "The LDS church" but "The Church of Jesus Christ"
A lot of people won't really like the way that's handled, after all, if they don't personally believe in the tenets of "The Church of Jesus Christ" they might feel like the word choice involved is exclusionary. It's not, we aren't saying "Christ's Church". It's just our name!!
So, I, a proud member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( or Church of Jesus Christ for short) would love to discuss the tenets of the church with anyone.
The Church of Jesus Christ has an interesting history, actually, it's fascinating no matter what you believe.
Mitt Romney, a candidate for president, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. Don't you wonder what a member of the Church of Jesus Christ believes?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that is.
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