The problems isn't that Jesus isn't in the name...

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

...it is that he is missing from the church. Lack of compassion, unconditional love, understanding and comfort.

[Anon70]

I just said this to my kids. I’ve been hearing for years that we don’t talk about Christ enough.....and this is how you fix it? Why not just have an entire curriculum of lessons on being Christlike (instead of, say, lives of the prophets).

[alas]

This is what gets me about rebranding, or in this case, insisting on the formal name. Nothing changes below the surface. If you want to change the public perception, don’t change the name; change the product. Say UTA (Utah Transet Authority) has several years of bad publicity. They did recently and they wanted to convince the public that they were going to change. So, they wanted to spend the public’s money changing the name on all the buses and stuff. That was not changing the problem, which involved some misuse of public money, but continuing the wasting of public money. So, after some public outcry, they decided to keep the name.

If the church wants to be known as a Christian religion, they they need to stop focusing on follow the prophet and go to the temple and keep your covenants and pay your tithing. They need to preach about Christ and the atonement at every meeting, not as the assumed foundation that is hardly ever seen. They need to be more Christlike in their behavior. They need to start being a Christian religion, instead of an “earn your way to exhalation” church.

Or, they need to accept that they really are not Christian as the rest of the world understands Christianity, and just own it.

[SincereInquirer]

Or, they need to accept that they really are not Christian as the rest of the world understands Christianity, and just own it.

But they are supposed to highlight every mention of Jesus while reading the Book of he who must not be named! That surely means they are all about Christ and must be Christian!

[Hagoth]

Uchtdorf's talk really felt different than everybody else's because it was so Jesus-centric. He talked about Jesus. He didn't quote his colleagues or fawn over Joseph Smith and/or Russel Nelson. Jesus. He seemed very out of place and I'm sure they'll give him a talking-to.

p.s. the huge extended howls of laughter he got from the German Shepard joke was kinda startling. It would barely earn a polite chuckle in any other circumstance.

[Reuben]

Uchtdorf's talk really felt different than everybody else's because it was so Jesus-centric. He talked about Jesus. He didn't quote his colleagues or fawn over Joseph Smith and/or Russel Nelson. Jesus. He seemed very out of place and I'm sure they'll give him a talking-to.

p.s. the huge extended howls of laughter he got from the German Shepard joke was kinda startling. It would barely earn a polite chuckle in any other circumstance.

It means the audience is with him. That's good in this case.

We need more Uchtdorf and Cordon, and less of everyone else.

[EternityIsNow]

Yes, the problem is that they have invented a prosperity Jesus who they control through 'prophetic utterances', and that character is very profitable, a golden goose. The real Jesus character is not in the lessons, meetings, or in the policies. And that is for good reason. They don't know how to monetize actual Christianity. The problem starts with the word 'Charity'. Really not a profitable direction, Brigham would not approve of a Christian Charity mission for the church.

Its always been about MOReMONey.

This was a very monetized conference, BTW. A fast with instructions to read scriptures and go to the Temple. Which requires a TR, which requires full tithing. Then new Temples, and the idea of gathering Israel through Temple work. Very clever.

[Hagoth]

The real Jesus character is not in the lessons, meetings, or in the policies. And that is for good reason. They don't know how to monetize actual Christianity.

Yup, the biggest problem with Jesus is that he tells you to give your money away, and his earliest church had no rich or poor among them. Damned hippy communists!

[wtfluff]

Its always been about MOReMONey.

BRILLIANT!

(Legal Notice: I will be plagiarizing this as often as I can.)

[blazerb]

I think it's hard to find yourself leading the church at this time. We are so used to talking about rapid growth. That has ended, and it does not look like it's coming back. So, we have to find reasons. We raise the bar for missionaries. We introduce new missionary training and lessons. We tell everyone to keep the Sabbath (on Sunday). Now it's the name of the church. It feels like they are grasping for reasons why the church is failing to thrive without accepting that things are different. The top-down model is less appealing today. Historical issues are more important. There are other issues of course.