What is and is not the church?

Is the MoTab the church? They don't act much how the church does. You have to try out, and they don't give scholarships for people who can't afford to take time off work, yet almost everyone would call them "the church's choir". The difference is that there isn't other choirs in salt lake who compete with the motab.

Is LDS social services the church? They aren't run by the priesthood, yet almost everyone would call them "the church's social services". And again, there aren't fans of catholic social services rooting for CSS to beat down the LDS SS.

Is BYU the church? To ute fans that is anathema, yet anyone who is actually familiar with BYU knows that probably half of the specialized organizations under the BYU umbrella are there for the benefit of the church itself, not to mention that the board of trustees include the top councils of the church, and the church subsidizes the tuition of the attendees. Almost everyone outside of utah would call BYU the church's school, but ute fans won't admit it.

When the BYU bball team toured Australia, they attracted around 500 "fans" at every game. BYU bball doesn't have a lot of fans in Australia, but the church does have members, and some of those members came to support their church's school.

Everyone needs to admit the obvious: BYU is part of the church. It is an auxiliary, and has a very important role in what the church is trying to accomplish. That doesn't mean that church members all have to be fans, but they definitely shouldn't be haters, and they should defend it from anti haters, instead of mocking along with them.