On the Naming of This Blog

It's been a year now since the announcement on misusing the term "Mormon," and as you may notice, this blog is still called "The Mormon Mel." I've received a few questions and have decided this is a perfect opportunity for a fun discussion.

First, a little catch up.

In August 2018, our new leader, the 94-year-old President Russell M. Nelson, launched an effort to correct the branding of our church. The official name of our church is, and has always been: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The concern is that perhaps we have relied too much on the nickname "Mormon," such that it has corrupted the Church's image, and has led to confusion. For example, several times people have asked me if I believe in a God named Mormon. Or they don't realize that we rely on the Bible as much as we do the Book of Mormon. And many don't know we believe in Jesus Christ at all.

But just imagine ... if everyone called us "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," it could help clear things up. Do we believe in Jesus? "It's in the name of our church." Do we believe in the Bible? "What Jesus-believing religion doesn't?"

It all makes sense. While the Church tones down on the use of the term "Mormon," it helps clarify our doctrine, and help others understand what we believe.

So then, why have I not changed the name of my blog to comply? Wouldn't it be better to call it "The Latter-day Saint Mel," which would be in harmony with the new Style Guide?

Short answer: Because, for me, nothing has changed. The name of the Church hasn't changed, and for decades we've received the same counsel urging against the use of the nickname "Mormon." I had all this in mind a few years ago when I chose the name of my blog, and the reasons behind the blog name haven't changed. Of course, this will need more explaining.

I'll start with describing how soap works. (wait for it...)

The typical soap molecule has two sides to it. One is an oily fatty acid side, and the other side is a harsh alkaline. The oily side likes to stick to oil, while the alkaline (lye) likes to stick to water.

If you try to wash your oily hands with only water, it doesn't work very well because oil and water don't mix. The water just slides off, and you still got oily dirt on your hands. If you try to pour lye on your hands, hoping it'll help the water clean your hands, it might work, but it'll burn your hands. Likewise, if you try to pour on oily fatty acids, it'll just smear and get oilier.

It takes both the fatty acid and the lye in combination to make it all work. Kind of like a mullet ... you know, business in the front (the lye), and party in the back (the fatty acid)? This video gives a little bit more detail on how soap works, if you want to know more.

What I'd like to point out here is that the fatty acid is a type of "hook" that is needed to attract the oil and dirt in order for the "business" to work. Ultimately it's the lye that attaches to the water to pull away the dirt, but it's useless without the dirty fatty acid side.

This "hook" concept appears everywhere in book writing and advertising. You want to attract customers to buy your products or read the meat ("business") of what you want people to read.

Think about this: if you have something to say, why should anyone listen to you? More often than not, people don't care what you have to say, because they're preoccupied by whatever they enjoy or whatever they're worrying about. You could talk and talk and talk, but they'll most likely tune you out.

Unless, you catch their attention. Perhaps you've seen the Looney Tunes short where a man tries to get people to see his dancing frog? Nobody comes until he paints a "FREE BEER" sign.

This is ultimately why I chose to include the word "Mormon" in my blog title. It is my hook, and my main targets are people who aren't members of my church, but are looking to learn more about it. Plus, I love the clever alliteration. So many "M"s! The Mormon Mel!

It also fits nicely with the names of my other blogs: The Word of Mel, The Music of Mel, and The Econo-Mel. Each blog title has just two accented syllables and follows a simple pattern.

Once I get people to my blog, I then hit them with the "business," and I think I do a pretty good job at this. People who visit learn things about my church, and they're usually grateful and very appreciative of how I present things.

Practically everyone has heard of the "Mormons." They may not understand what it is, but they do know that it's something, and that it's peculiar, and interesting. These same people are much less likely to have heard of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" or the shortened "Latter-day Saints" and probably don't know they're the same as "Mormons."

Check out these search results as presented by Google Trends. The following graph shows a popularity index of different keywords among actual Google searches. I've set blue = "mormon"; red = "latter day saint"; yellow = "lds"; and green = "church of jesus christ of latter day saints."

"LDS" has been consistently popular over the past 15 years. "Mormon" appears to track slightly under "LDS" until 2011 when the "Book of Mormon" musical came out. And recently it has gone back down to its previous level. But look at the green and red lines -- you can hardly see them at all.

And check this out ...

The geography of "Mormon" searches cover the entire United States, with peaks in heavily LDS-populated states.

Compare with ...

The geography of "Latter Day Saint" is much more confined to more heavily LDS-populated states, with almost nothing coming from the other states. It's almost as if the other states didn't get the memo!

This all tells me that if I were to change the name of my blog to "The Latter-day Saint Mel", it would drastically decrease its visibility. It would be harder to reach those outside of my church ... a big chunk of my intended audience.

I'll come back to this, but first some quick history.

In 1990, First Counselor Hinckley talked about people calling us "Mormon," and said, "They could do worse." Mormon was an honorable man -- a prophet from around 400 AD. While everyone else was busy killing people and living riotously, Mormon compiled the majority of what we now call the Book of Mormon. He also raised a son in righteousness -- Moroni, who would later finish the work of his father.

When Elder Hinckley became our church President, he ran a successful PR campaign, appearing on 60 Minutes, and submitting to other interviews. He always used the full name of our church, but when people called us "Mormons," he would just smile and say, "Would you like to learn more?" He encouraged us to stand taller and to be a great example to the world.

In 2011, the "I'm a Mormon" campaign launched under President Monson (the one who succeeded President Hinckley). Also, that year the Church put out a light-hearted official response to the Book of Mormon musical: "The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ." And in 2014 came the release of the "Meet the Mormons" movie, which was meant for mainly non-Mormon audiences.

Thus, the idea of using "Mormon" as a hook has been around a long time. Though, recently, President Nelson has indicated that perhaps we had made mistakes forsaking our church's name while trying to bring in more followers. And this is the main impetus for the recent rebranding. A lot of our church's websites have been renamed to move away from "Mormon" and "LDS," and to move more toward the full name and sometimes "Latter-day Saint."

The URL lds.org now redirects to churchofjesuschrist.org. And mormon.org now goes to comeuntochrist.org. Also, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been renamed to be the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square -- undoubtedly the most visual manifestation of this rebranding to the outside world. It will most likely raise questions, and help others learn from this new emphasis by President Nelson.

Just one more thing to show you before I wrap up. Many owners of blogs and Facebook pages that previously used "LDS" or "Mormon" have shown compliance by changing to the lengthier "Latter-day Saint" or the full name of the Church. (But not all have changed.)

For example, the group formally known as "LDS Pianists" is now "Pianists of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." And look at what these name changes did to some of these Facebook Groups:

I can immediately make out what each group is except for three of them: "Latter-day Saint Or...", "The Church of Jes...", and "Latter-day Saint S...", which in turn makes them harder to find. I'm forced to hover my mouse over the title to figure out what each one is.

Now imagine the name of my blog in some feed. Right now, "The Mormon Mel" is short and would fit perfectly. But if I change the name, it would appear as "The Latter-day Sain..." I know that would translate into fewer visitors.

Finally, to conclude, I fully understand the inspiration that President Nelson has delivered, and the name changes that the Church underwent for their websites and organizations. It makes sense that the world should know the true name of our Church.

However, I've given this much consideration over the past year, and I feel that I can serve a much higher purpose and reach more people by keeping the name of my blog the same: "The Mormon Mel." I love the alliteration, and I believe the title is catchy and has high visibility.

Once people come to my blog, I'll set things straight. I do plan to take some other actions to comply with the instructions we've received, such as stopping the use of the word "Mormonism" (of which I agree 100%) and to change the subheading of my blog to reflect the full name of the Church ... stay tuned for more details as I roll those changes out.