Name-calling was a part of Amalickiah’s rhetoric. The text tells us that Amalickiah’s followers began calling their opponents Christians. It does not appear that this was meant to be a flattering name. Today, we think of Christians as a very noble term, and Latter-day Saints are concerned when others deny us the right to call ourselves Christians. Why might this word have been used as a slur here? Amalickiah’s followers had dissented from the Church, and generally did not believe that the Messiah (the Anointed One or the Christ) would ever come. It was a fundamental axiom of these dissenters that the believers could not know that he would ever come. Thus, calling them “Christians” was not a compliment, and might even have branded them as targets. However, the faithful Nephites gladly adopted that name and took that name upon themselves, perhaps at considerable risk.