Latter Day Saint

A Latter Day Saint (LDS) is a person who identifies with the Latter Day Saint movement and is a follower of Mormonism. The name "Latter Day Saint" should not to be confused with the different but misleadingly similar term "Latter-day Saint." The hyphenated term "Latter-day Saint" is used to refer specifically to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the largest LDS organisation. The non-hyphenated term "Latter Day Saint" is often used by other sects within the movement, and refers more generally to all followers of Mormonism, whether those followers are specific members of the LDS Church or not.

Latter Day Saints trace their religious heritage through Joseph Smith, Jr., who claimed to have restored the original "Church of Christ", which, he asserted, had disappeared from the earth after a period of apostasy. Latter Day Saints consider themselves to be "saints" in the original sense of the word, meaning members of the original Christian church established in the First Century, AD.

Members of the smaller sects are sometimes, but incorrectly, referred to as Mormons (a nickname taken from the title of the Book of Mormon). The term Mormon is correctly applied only to Latter-day Saints, and even that appellation is discouraged by leaders of that sect, who ask instead that the term "Saints" be applied to members of the sect, and that the shorter "Church of Jesus Christ" be used on second reference to the church. The terms LDS or LDS Church are preferable to Mormon. (See [1])

Though the use of "Mormon" to describe the church and its members persists, it has generally lost its original pejorative sense.

==List of Latter Day Saint sects == (See http://www.adherents.com )

* The largest of these churches, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, sometimes called the LDS Church; commonly but incorrectly called the Mormon Church.

† Formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or RLDS Church.

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