Culture: According to Mormon, non-church-men termed church-men “Christians,” an honorific term in his lexicon since he includes it in Moroni’s mighty prayer. However, Mormon explains so carefully why church-men adopted “Christian” as their name that it seems obvious the original connotations were pejorative—an “outsider” name for church-men. Probably church members did not have a specific name for themselves other than “Nephite” since that term would, for most of Nephite history, designate both religion and political allegiance. Those who were politically “Nephite” but not church-men needed a different term to make a distinction not necessary to church-men. Thus, “Christian” would be applied by outsiders, who almost certainly would have been derogatory; outsiders denied the Christ and contended against a belief in the Atoning Messiah.
This situation resembles that of early church members in the Old World. Disciples of Christ were first called “Christian” in Antioch (Acts 11:26), almost certainly to solve the same type of differentiation problem. In Antioch were both Jews and “Christians” who were also Jews. The need to differentiate types of Jewishness would have been more important to the outsider than the insider. Inside the group, they knew who they were and need not have unique names for themselves when they are with others of the same group. When early followers of Christ referred to themselves, they did not do so by the name of the one they followed but rather the discipline they followed. They were part of “the way” (Acts 18:25). It is well known that premodern peoples usually have a self-name that translates simply to “the people.” Specific modifiers are needed for “other” groups; and since we humans tend to think our own group is the best, out-group names not infrequently have pejorative connotations.