when I first introduced them to branching and merging -- they looked like I was offending them

This is probably because branching and merging are advanced concepts, and infinitely less useful than to simply keep track of the changes.

So why not explain just "commit" (save) and "update"? Two really simple concepts. I'm sure you can explain it in less than 10 minutes.

If you really want to use separate branches and stuff like that, you can do that part yourself without involving them with it.