Following the announcement by President Nelson that use of the common nickname for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its people was “a major victory for Satan,” I thought it would be helpful for Mormons members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have a way to avoid participating in wins for the devil. I’ve made a Chrome browser extension that replaces all instances of the word “Mormon” on a web page with [VICTORY FOR 😈].
In Nelson’s Sunday morning General Conference address, he went on to say, “When the Savior clearly states what the name of His church should be, and even precedes His declaration with, ‘Thus shall my church be called,’ He is serious.” This browser plugin isn’t entirely serious, but it’s free and you get what you pay for.
Here is what a web page looks like before and after installing the browser extension:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
INSTALLATION:
It is easy to install the browser extension. The source code and installation instructions are hosted on my GitHub:
https://github.com/cynthiablee/victory-for-satan-blocker
PS: Maybe next I can make one that implements the entire new style guide, including more specific replacements, such as changing “Mormon Tabernacle Choir” to “Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.”
UPDATE:
Alright, alright, alright. Got a bunch of requests for a more serious version. Here you go:
https://github.com/cynthiablee/mormon-style-guide-updater
Turns out I can’t think of a good general-purpose adjective form replacement for “Mormon.” Plus, there are some acceptable uses remaining (e.g., I’m assuming “Book of Mormon” and the guy named Mormon are still ok). So to work around that, I’ve just created a bunch of more specific rules to catch the most common cases. For example, “Mormon church,” “Mormon missionary” (and, separately, “Mormon missionaries”), get replaced by “[missionary[ies] for] the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” The MoTab naming update is in there. Those of you with GitHub accounts, feel free to make pull requests with any improvements you think up.
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
There’s nothing I can say that be half as clever as this, so I’ll just say, way to go, it’s a
Mormon!
This is why you are the best. Brava!
This is amazing! And I couldn’t help but notice that mormonism translates into ‘victory for Satanism’
I’m a little worried now…
Not funny. Mocking President Nelson should not be permitted on BCC.
Teach me your ways master.
I used to come here to gain a new perspective on differing LDS topics. I found it interesting and learned a few things. However, I’ll stop reading now. This is ridiculous and is crossing the line into mockery.
Bravo, yet I’m sitting tight to see whether this post will result in another deletion followed by another “Note On BCC Editorial Practices.”
Thanks. This helped me lighten up – in the best Chieko Okazaki sense. Perhaps mockery is in the eye of the beholder.
“Be spiritually independent enough that your relationship with the Savior doesn’t depend on your circumstances or on what other people say and do. Have the spiritual independence to be a Mormon–the best Mormon you can–in your own way. Not the bishop’s way. Not the Relief Society president’s way. Your way.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up .
I’ve been getting flack for days now because as soon as those words left his lips I posted to FB the following:
I’m incredibly saddened to find out Pres Monson and Pres Hinckley were doing the work of Satan by this embracing “Mormon”. How faith shattering ☹️. That they’d “obliterate” the Savior’s role in the church is hard to understand. Apparently they were both guilty of quite an error during their presidencies.
Two thumbs way up, jaxjensen.
JFK and Marie, I’m sorry you feel offended by this. It was just meant in lighthearted fun, not to demean President Nelson. I hope this doesn’t make anyone choose not to come to BCC anymore. After all, Elder Bednar gave a whole talk about how it doesn’t make sense to lose out on something good, just because we felt offended by one incident.
As we all know, it’s the words of the *living* prophet that matters. All the dead ones? Meh.
Thank you for this. My children keep correcting me and saying, “MOM–you aren’t supposed to say Mormon anymore, remember?” So I finally had to sit them down and tell them about what it means to be middle-aged, having been conditioned to call oneself “Mormon” for decades of life (my parents raised me with the “I’m a Mormon, Yes I am!” tape set and we did “Mormon” themed primary lessons/songs all the time in my primary days), only to be told I am aiding and abetting the enemy with my lifelong identity, pretty much out of the blue. This is confusing and really, really hard to change. Mormon is who I have always been and my memory is really poor most days, so I can’t ever remember that I’m not Mormon anymore. My kids keep correcting me and hoping I will remember so I don’t embarrass them at church, but bless them, I probably will, with the memory I’ve got!
LOL
Awesome. If nothing else, this ought to highlight how widespread the term Mormon has become and that the context in which the term is used is generally neutral or laudatory.
While President Nelson noted that “In the early days of the restored Church, terms such as ‘Mormon Church’ and ‘Mormons’ were often used as epithets,” my sense is that this is no longer the case due to the inspired efforts by (former) leaders and the membership over the last several decades to reclaim the term. For a church that has consciously courted public opinion in its efforts to spread the gospel, the positive connotations of the term “Mormon” is something to keep on its public calling card even as the institution becomes, I hope, more Christ-centered in its efforts to build Zion.
This is brilliant, Cynthia! Get thee behind me, Mormon!
JFK, stop deifying leaders. The fact that Russell M. Nelson won the longevity lottery to become President of the Church does not suddenly make his every utterance the dew distilled from heaven.
At times making fun of the prophet would be fair and acceptable. This is not one of them.
Counterpoint #1: there’s no making fun of the prophet here.
Counterpoint #2: even if there were, what’s different between this browser plugin and situations where making fun of the prophet would be acceptable?
We need to be honest with ourselves. Labeling the use of “mormon” as a victory for Satan was more than a little silly, whether you believe in Nelson’s prophethood or not. The fact that he gave a talk on this in the April 1990 conference shows that it’s been one of his bugaboos for quite some time, not a fresh-off the presses revelation.
Further, there has been healthy disagreement on the topic among the brethren for at least as long (see Hinckley’s talk in October 1990). Hinckley and Monson embraced the term as a positive reflection of our peculiarity. If you believe their actions reflect inspiration, then the “I’m a Mormon” campaign was inspired of God. But now we’re told that this inspiration was, in reality, a victory for Satan. What a ridiculous illustration of the primacy of living prophets over dead ones.
Funny how one man’s longstanding opinion becomes revelation when he’s given the keys to power.
This is what I’m saying, and why it’s so troubling that RMN drops the R-word so often.
Call me an ark-steadier all you want, but we had more than two decades of leaders at the helm who were characterized by rhetorical humility, and now we don’t.
Mocking the prophet? I’d say this plug-in puts his guidance into action.
Because of this, I may start using Chrome.
Cynthia: I’m inclined to agree with Kyle. You’ve simply put to action what was said. Of course, it was obvious hyperbole, and Pres. Nelson must know that. If he can’t laugh at himself a little bit for his exaggeration, I’d be surprised. That’s an important skill for such a role as he has inherited.
SorellaM: “So I finally had to sit them down and tell them about what it means to be middle-aged” This describes every conversation I’ve ever had with my kids.
This is hilarious.
But Heptaparaparshinokh and Ted: President Nelson could not have been more clear: “[the change effort] is the command of the Lord.” It’s easy to chalk up a non-President’s words to opinion, or to wonder when the President is speaking as a man rather than for the Lord. But this is neither of those. Like it or not (and I *don’t* really like it), he at least believes and said that this is God’s revealed will for the Church. How do you get around that without undermining the concept of divine leadership of the Church at a fundamental level?
Billy: “How do you get around that without undermining the concept of divine leadership of the Church at a fundamental level?”
That is precisely the problem. When prophets are caught contradicting one another, one has to wonder.
“How do you get around that without undermining the concept of divine leadership of the Church at a fundamental level?”
IMO it’s not really that hard to distinguish between 1. revelation/doctrine; 2. policy that is described as revelation/doctrine; 3. policy that is described as policy.
The problem comes when people don’t believe category 2 exists, and that it’s heresy to claim that it does.
Get around it by using the full name on official church business, then use whatever you want on your own time.
I think you’re right, Kyle M. The next question (a la Sam Brunson’s later post) is how one should act in category 2 (or even category 3). I think this President in particular is going to force many of us to confront that question.
King Benjamin gave his people the name “Children of Christ” and I can’t remember anywhere else they are referred to by that name … we call them Nephities and we know for that time period the Nephities were the people who followed Christ. My mouth dropped when I heard president Nelson say that people in the past …. meaning leaders before him … had made mistakes regarding this subject. I felt like that was so uncalled for and unbecoming – especially since I have loved and respected so very much the prophets who have lead the church in my lifetime. I have recognized that in recent years leaders worked diligently to make the name Mormon synonymous with followers of Christ … children of Christ … I am not ashamed but proud to be called such and appreciate all the hard work of past leaders.