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The talk could start with “Webster’s Dictionary defines … as ….
I’ve done that more than once when dealing with a term that I believe is not understood as well as we think – like “meekness” or “dross”, for example.
Reminded of one today “endure to the end” – drudgery… “Boyd K. Packer says…” No comment…
Actually what’s with the middle initial? You could have a completely unusual name but you still have to have that initial eg Zaphod T Beeblebrox or even V Zaphod Beeblebrox. How many other Dieter Uchtdorfs, Gordon Hinckleys and Thomas Monsons can you think of? But we call them Dieter F Uchtdorf etc. We don’t even do this well, for example we talk of Joseph F Smith and Joseph Fielding Smith… two different people but as confusing as anything. Joseph Fielding Smith Sr & Jr would be better.
Must be an American thing – F Murray Abraham, Phillip K Dick, Poppy Z Brite (what happened to her?!)… could miss out the middle initial in all these cases.
Sambee… So, so true. The initial is weird. I just looked and the initial thing is done with the female presidencies too. I don’t have a middle name. Whatever will I do when I get then call. “I’m sorry Sis. Martha, we were going to call you as The RS General President, but then we found out you don’t have a middle name. 
My button-pusher is, “I know I would be very ungrateful if I did not stand up and bear my testimony today.” I’m not a testimony bearer, and never have been. But if there is one thing I am, it’s grateful. To have someone imply that we must publically stand up and list off all our blessings in order to be sufficiently grateful for them is just plain insensitive.
ihhi wrote:Amen on the investigator comments. Referring to people as members/non-members also drives me nuts, it is as if we are declarin their social value.
As for the tradition of using brother/sister, that one has never been a comfortable one for me. I see it as a sign of respect between youth and adults, but not a necessary term. When an adult adressses me as brother… instead of Ian it feels very impersonal. Like they don’t remember my first name or something, or that they just aren’t comfortable enough around me to use it.
I pretty much agree with you, but I had one experience that kind of made me feel differently. For a couple of years, ending about three years ago, my husband and I served as missionaries here in Salt Lake City (where we live) as part of the “Hispanic Initiative” program. We had to attend a Spanish-speaking ward every week for two years. My husband speaks Spanish and fit in perfectly, but I know just about enough Spanish to know what to order from Taco Time. Not only was it boring for me, I felt like I’d never get to know the other women in the ward. Then I started noticing that they all called each other “Hermana” (sister) instead of by their first names. I thought it was so strange, because in my home wards throughout my life, the only people we ever addressed as “Brother” or “Sister” were the members who were much, much older than we were. Nobody ever called a peer, “Sister.” Within just a couple of weeks after we started going there, they started calling me “Hermana,” too. But when they said, “Como esta, Hermana?” (How are you, sister?), it sounded so genuine I could hardly believe it. It just felt altogether different than it did in any English-speaking ward I’ve ever been in. I still don’t like to be called “Sister” in my own ward; it actually kind of makes me feel less close to whomever calls me that. But in the Spanish-speaking ward, it made me feel like I was in a room full of my very own sisters. It made me feel like they really did like me, even though we could hardly say two sentences to each other.Just thought of another one. (I’m probably overly critical, but some of these things do bug me.) When a person gives a talk and then closes by saying, “And I say this in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.” I want to say, “Uh… who is it you’ve been addressing for the last twenty minutes? Because Jesus Christ is not my Son.” A talk is not a prayer. The speaker is addressing the congregation, not God. When someone ends that way, I have to conclude that they really aren’t giving all that much thought to what they are saying, and are just rambling off some good closing words. AngryMormon wrote:Referring to human beings as “investigators” and viewing them as a commodity always bothered me. As someone who works in sales and is a convert, calling a person an “investigator” is not a good sales tactic.
I agree, and whenever I’ve talked to someone who is going to attend Sacrament Meeting for the first time, I usually warn them that someone might approach them and ask if they’re an investigator. Man, if someone were to ask me that, it would really put me off. I explain that the word is just LDS lingo to refer to someone who is looking at the Church from the perspective of possibly joining it.A follow-up on the “Brother/Sister” thing: it’s always bugged me when a speaker refers to their spouse as “Sister” or “Brother.” “Sister Johnson and I were at Dairy Queen the other day ….” Dude, she’s your wife – it’s okay to call her by her given name. SamBee wrote:Actually what’s with the middle initial? You could have a completely unusual name but you still have to have that initial eg Zaphod T Beeblebrox or even V Zaphod Beeblebrox.
😆 So true!Maybe they’re reasoning…Well, it is a big world, we want to make sure the right person gets credit for what they
SAY… and as the sign might say on BYU campus… “The campus is our world” (or is it the other way a round?). Kumahito wrote:A follow-up on the “Brother/Sister” thing: it’s always bugged me when a speaker refers to their spouse as “Sister” or “Brother.” “Sister Johnson and I were at Dairy Queen the other day ….” Dude, she’s your wife – it’s okay to call her by her given name.
Agreed. From an outsider perspective, it might seem even more strange.
Katzpur wrote:Just thought of another one. (I’m probably overly critical, but some of these things do bug me.) When a person gives a talk and then closes by saying, “And I say this in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.” I want to say, “Uh… who is it you’ve been addressing for the last twenty minutes? Because Jesus Christ is not my Son.” A talk is not a prayer. The speaker is addressing the congregation, not God. When someone ends that way, I have to conclude that they really aren’t giving all that much thought to what they are saying, and are just rambling off some good closing words.
You beet me to it Katzpur. There was a thread on here some time ago that linked to a study showing the rise of ending sermons etc. “in the name of” at GC. If I remember correctly it started out being only when the sermon ended with a prayer (“and it is my prayer that you should do these things”) or an apostolic blessing (“and I leave these blessings upon this congregation”) and then grew from there.
Actually one of these days, someone should throw in a U2 reference… “And I say this in the name of…. love, Amen”
😆 And I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Interestingly, I don’t mind the term “investigator”, since I consider myself to be an investigator (a seeker, a searcher, an analyst) and see it as a positive term. I wish all members were investigators in the purest sense of the word.
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