Yes, not only do Mormons have style, they have their own style guild to help them along! Now before you get too excited about looking up what dress or tie is the best to wear when a GA is visiting your next Stake Conference, this style guild is for writers and editors to use, for both members/church employees, and for those outside the Church when writing anything about Mormons. In fact using the name Mormon is such a big no-no, that there is a separte style guild just for the name of the Church which you can find here.
But this is not a post about what to call the Church, it is about what is found in the general writers style guild. It starts out by saying that the Church follows the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, and the Mormon, LDS, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints guild is only for those areas where the Church differs from the Chicago guild.
The first part I found interesting was the Spelling and Usage of Terms in Church, section 7.2. They have a long list of words to be used, like the very first one “agency (not free agency)” . Then they say to not use the words “golden plates”, but instead use “gold plates”. Not sure if there is some hidden meaning in that. The other I found interesting was the use of the word “same-sex”. They specifically say not to use the word “same-gender”.
For capitalization of Deity, Heavenly Mother is on par with Heavenly Father in that they are both capitalized, but heavenly parents is not. Satan and Lucifer is capitalized, son or perdition is not.
Lastly I found it interesting that there is an “Uchtdorf” exception when quoting General Authorietes
13.17 When introducing a quotation from a living
General Authority, usually give the title of his
current position rather than the title he held at
the time he made the statement. (An exception
might be made for a historical account if the
title held at the time of an event might be most
helpful to the reader.)
However, when introducing a quotation from
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, give the title he held
at the time he made the statement.
Because Elder Uchtdorf was not called back into the First Presidency by Nelson, the Church wants to make sure that the statements made by him when he was in the FP are presumably given more weight than those given since he is now just an Apostle. What do you think?
Wheat & Tares 
I believe the church’s name at least on first reference requires capitalizing the word “The,” much like the way alums of The Ohio State University annoyingly insist on its use. Of course, only those affiliated in some way with either institution appear to care. For others it suggests a certain amount of arrogance and/or superiority.
I’m excited by the apparent reintroduction of guilds 😄 Is it their job to produce the guides?
So, when I quote a GA I try to indicate the position they held at the time they made the statement, if I can, regardless of whether or not they are Elder Uchtdorf. So I would say, then Elder/President/Bishop… I don’t actually think becoming president of the church confers additional importance to things they said before they became president.
I think all statements by Uchtdorf should be canonized. His Conference talks, all of them, should be bound with the title “Book of Uchtdorf” and distributed to all local leaders of the Church.
I’m not the first one to point out deliciously ironic it is that the same group of people who are so uncomfortable with the request by some that we use certain pronouns in society have no problem complying with the requirement that we call former bishops “bishop” indefinitely, that we call missionaries “Elder” and “Sister” and never by their first names, that we call auxiliary heads “president”, and that we address each other in Church meetings as “brother” and “sister”. If that aint a style guide I don’t know what is.
I issue my strongest possible condemnation to the wrong-headed statement that we must use “agency” instead of “free agency.”
Agency is a legal term with a very specific definition. It means to act at the direction and for the benefit of another. An agent, therefore, really doesn’t have free will. However, a free agent is “free” to act in his own interest without direction from another.
Clearly, it is “free agency” that is the central doctrine of the Gospel. Calling it merely “agency” is contradictory and wrong. Indeed, it might be called a victory for Satan.
I like the Uchtdorf exception and think it should be the rule. There has to be a way to downgrade some of the wacko stuff Joseph Fielding Smith and Ezra Taft Benson said before they became president of the church.
John,
We are agents unto ourselves, meaning we represent ourselves with our choices, words and actions. The “free” modifier is sometimes appropriate and often not. We are often pressured in the choices we make and we are never in full control of the consequences of our choices.
Many things may appear golden without being made of gold. The distinction is a small way for the church to reinforce that the plates were made of gold, and not just some brass alloy that looks golden.
Statements should be judged based on the truth and insight they convey, not the position of the speaker. The brethren recognize this, otherwise they would only quote previous apostles, rather than slowly recreating the entire corpus of CS Lewis one quote at a time.
They can pry “free agency” out of my cold, dead hands. Which is apparently the plan.
Oh hey! We’re not supposed to call Church leaders the “Brethren.”
“(avoid the term the Brethren, but capitalize it
when referring to General Authorities except
when it is modified, such as my brethren or these
brethren)”
I like using “Brethren.” It sounds appropriately male and gives off Big Brother vibes — meaning sinister leader who insists he is benevolent and all-knowing. The Church disapproves of its usage; probably for the same reason that I like using it.
The distinction is a small way for the church to reinforce that the plates were made of gold, and not just some brass alloy that looks golden.
What a bizarre detail to insist on. The three witnesses did not identify the plates as gold or even golden. The eight witnesses limit themselves to saying that the plates had “the appearance of gold”. If those witnesses did not think the metallurgical content of the plates was important enough to testify to, why should the Church attach that level of importance to it?
“I like using “Brethren.” It sounds appropriately male and gives off Big Brother vibes — meaning sinister leader who insists he is benevolent and all-knowing. ”
It also contains a note of equality with the rest of the Brothers and Sisters. And we can’t have that, now can we!
tithe payer; full-tithe payer; non-tithe payer; part-tithe payer
tithe-paying (modifier)
tithing in kind (noun)
tithing-in-kind (modifier)
They have preferred spelling and usage of a whole list of terms referring to how much and what type of tithing people pay. Seems like they think about tithing a lot.
I grew up in a ward in SLC and the bishop of my fomative years (always an influential person) was the son of Joseph Fielding Smith. In a ward meeting, soon after JFS’s death, he (my bishop, and JFS’s son) was speaking and he commented on JFS’s relatively brief period as president of the church. He led the church for 2.5 years. My bishop, again JFS’s son, said that he believed that the primary reason that his father was made prophet was so that it would legitimize and emphasize the importance of all of his teachings from the period BEFORE he was president of the church. I’ve thought about that comment many times over the years. I don’t think that I can accept it. But there it is.
I grew up in a ward in SLC and the bishop of my fomative years (always an influential person) was the son of Joseph Fielding Smith. In a ward meeting, soon after JFS’s death, he (my bishop, and JFS’s son) was speaking and he commented on JFS’s relatively brief period as president of the church. He led the church for 2.5 years. My bishop, again JFS’s son, said that he believed that the primary reason that his father was made prophet was so that it would legitimize and emphasize the importance of all of his teachings from the period BEFORE he was president of the church. I’ve thought about that comment many times over the years. I don’t think that I can accept it. But there it is.
lastlemming – ironically enough, given the purported weight of the plates, it’s quite possible that they were made of tumbaga (a copper-gold alloy) or something similar. Given the widely reported dimensions, something approaching gold of reasonable purity would have a mass well north of 120 pounds.
stephenchardy brings up an important point about how someone’s words are regarded based on the office they held later. Mormon Doctrine was published before Bruce McConkie was an apostle, and The Miracle of Forgiveness was published before Spencer Kimball was president of the church. While I’m too young to remember either of those things being published, knowing church culture, I believe both works were elevated in status after the fact as their authors gained higher status.
First of all, did Bishop Bill type “the Allman Brothers as Mormon missionaries” into an AI image generator? If, so, well played Bishop Bill. Secondly, rather than be hyper focused on policing the style in which the media refers to the Church, why not focus on outwardly attempting to address the many problems facing humanity, using your hundred of billions? I thought it was “by your fruits they shall know you,” not by “your style guide they shall know you.” Finally, I agree with Quentin, Mconkokie and Kimball’s later honorifics helped prop up their earlier works for decades. “The Miracle of Forgiveness” was required mission prep reading at least until the late 90s when I went out.
The primary songbook still has The Golden Plates, so all the poor little kids are learning the wrong preferred usage.