To their point: When I was a kid, caffeine was looked upon very poorly. Now, every Mormon I know drinks Soda and in fact the amount of Soda Shops has exploded in areas known to have large LDS populations.
I live in SLC and it's hard to miss.
https://www.franchisetimes.com/dealmakers/soda-brand-swig-wi... (First thing I searched and I guess they just got awarded some bullshit. Convenient timing.)
Some excerpts:
> And so in April 2010, Swig was born in St. George, in a valley in southwestern Utah
> we grew from two [2] stores in 2013 to 17 stores until 2018
But good for them, I suppose.
> You're putting words in his mouth
Ok... His exact words were:
"The Lord has impressed upon me the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...the name of the Church is not negotiable.”
He later said (in the same speech):
“[The name] is a correction. It is the command of the Lord.”
I'm not about to split hairs. But he claims to be a prophet and represent God. Then he gets in front of the church at a worldwide conference, when he knows the most people will be watching and says "The Lord has impressed upon me...", "It is a command of the Lord".
You can call it what you want, but he is clearly implying that his deity told/impressed/inspired/commanded this change.
I'm not putting words in his mouth. These are the transcripts from his announcement. This is what he said. It is hard to interpret it any other way. He seems to be very clearly stating that this is directed by "the Lord".