Talk:William Barratt

Church
In this article The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are not the same thing. It's not "just a matter of semantics". Many different churches claim to be the successor to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, including the LDS Church. See Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints). Snocrates 09:13, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm well aware of the multiple progeny of Smith's creation. The reason that I did not initially recognize that your wikilinks were not, in fact, redundant, was because all references antedated 1844.  Before Smith's murder, as far as I am aware, there was only one Mormon church extant, so I hastily assumed that you had created redundant links.   I now understand what you were doing, which is why I did not revert the removal of the second set of wikilinks that I had previously deleted as redundant.


 * However, there is the simple matter of English language usage. If you read the article Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints), you find that most of the time the definite article ("the") is placed before the name of the church, without capital letters (though not in the opening sentence).  It's simply too awkward for the average English speaker (at least, I should say, average American speaker of English—I wouldn't want to speak for others) to say that "he belonged to Church of Jesus Christ" or whatever.  We need the article.  The point I was making by my comment about semantics had nothing to do with what churches were called what at what time, it was merely that I felt the need to insert a non-capitalized "the" in the sentence, which is what I did.  So yes, that truly was merely a matter of semantics (or grammar, if you look at it from another direction).


 * Incidentally, as a matter of full disclosure, I will acknowledge that I don't favor the current nomenclature in some of the articles on Mormonism. However, the arguments in favor of the current system are intelligent and rational, and I lack any passion to challenge them.


 * Oh, one more thing. Thanks for the article.  That's the coolest thing about Wikipedia.  Learning new things everyday is really possible, with just one click of the Random Article link.  Thanks for the lesson on Mr. Barratt.  Unschool (talk) 09:47, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, the "the" was needed. I didn't realise that's what you were referring to. Thanks. Snocrates 10:59, 11 January 2008 (UTC)