A couple of days ago I blogged about the LDS Church encouraging Mormons to phase out the terms “inactive” and “less active” from their vocabulary. This is a story I had reposted from Wheat & Tares, which had a first-person account of a meeting in the UK where such language was allegedly discouraged for the future. But I wanted to say that the Church’s PR department contacted me last night to politely disconfirm the story. Here is a portion of that email:

We have checked several reliable sources today, in the UK and here at headquarters, and there is no indication that there is a coordinated effort to suggest those terms not be used. This appears to be sourced from an isolated comment or discussion in a meeting. No doubt this is an interesting, sincere discussion, but speculation like this can spread so easily, and it can be difficult sometimes, for everyone involved, to get to the bottom of the story.

So it seems that what happened at that meeting was not to be considered an official gesture on the part of the worldwide Church, but a local initiative that was misunderstood. I apologize for contributing to a rumor, and have gone back to the original blog post to change it.  –JKR