> we are religious, the family is predominantly active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a significant portion live in the intermountain west area of the U.S.
Everybody in America would know to fill in all that information if you simply said "We are Mormon".
"Mormon" was originally a derogatory term that was coined by those that legalized killing Mormons on sight until 1980. So some are understandably uncomfortable with its continued usage.
It may have been coined that way, but Mormons quickly adopted it as well as a favorite term and used it that way coming up on 200 years. The church used the word extensively in marketing campaigns for decades, between mormonads and I'm a Mormon, etc. Under Hinckley who was media savvy, it was used a lot.
Nelson (current head of the church) just doesn't like the word and wants to change it. Confusion, inconvenience, and Pragmatism be damned. It's his right as prophet to say that Jesus told him to use the full name of the church and drop Mormon, but let's not pretend it's suddenly offensive because it's been used by enemies of the church. They've also used the full name as well, so that should be offensive if we're staying consistent.
I find your insistence that they can't be offended by a word with an objectively offensive historical origin fascinating. Do you deny that sometimes opinions on words and language can change over time?
I have insisted nothing of the sort. Of course, opinions on words and languages can change over time. However, I find it unlikely that a population of tens of millions suddenly became offended, even if their prophet told them to.
More reasonably, I think they are not offended. Rather they are simply trying to use the full name of the church rather than any sort of shortenings. Sure, if somebody was being a jerk and using the word Mormon to be a jerk, then that could be offensive. However, that's a much different thing than being offended by the word itself used in a friendly context.
Everybody in America would know to fill in all that information if you simply said "We are Mormon".
I'm glad you're enjoying your rich family!