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‘Mormon Land’: Wrangling over ‘thechurchofjesuschrist.org’ — who owns the name?

Scrubbing “Mormon” and “LDS” from domain names wasn’t easy. Tech expert explores the church’s internet presence — and how and why it changed.

(churchofjesuschrist.org) The website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the wake of President Russell M. Nelson’s decree to remove the “Mormon” name from common parlance in person and in publications, the need to replace its use on the internet with the faith’s full name was no easy feat.

After all, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were widely known as “Mormons.” The faith even promoted a popular advertising campaign, called “I’m a Mormon,” highlighting the lives and beliefs of its followers.

The website mormon.org featured those mini-videos, while lds.org went to the church’s official website.

(Courtesy photo by Pete Comparoni | University of Kentucky Photo) Spencer Greenhalgh, associate professor in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky.

On this week’s show, technology expert Spencer Greenhalgh, who teaches in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky, discusses what it took to get those domain names changed and why church officials went to the time, trouble and expense to do so.

Listen here:


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