XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: jwkenne@attglobal.net   
      
   Öjevind Lång wrote:   
   > "Bill Baldwin"  skrev i meddelandet   
   > news:Xns991DE8B509EF0bbwebpage@130.133.1.4...   
   >> darylgene@aol.com (darylgene@aol.com) wrote:   
   >   
   >>> What would you say it means to be a Christian? If it really   
   >>> doesn't mean anything other than a person "calls" themselves one,   
   >>> I suppose you are correct in questioning my position. To me, at   
   >>> least adherence to the first two creeds, however broadly viewed,   
   >>> provides the delineation. I am curious where you would draw the   
   >>> line, somewhere the beliefs become so different that they   
   >>> constitute a wholly different belief system. (no I do not consider   
   >>> Unitarians, Mormans and several other groups that call themselves   
   >>> "Christian" to be. if that is parochial, so be it, I suppose I am   
   >>> parochial then)   
   >> Part of the problem is that people think it's an insult if you say   
   >> that this group or that person is "not Christian." Lewis addresses   
   >> this when he talks about how "Christian" has become a value judgment   
   >> rather than an objective label.   
   >>   
   >> But things do get complicated when different groups claim the label   
   >> and yet differ on what the objective standard is. I guess we just   
   >> have to live with that and be clear about what we mean. So we say for   
   >> example that Mormons are not Christian and hope that we won't have to   
   >> deal with responses that act as though we've called them axe-   
   >> murderers or have denied that they would call themselves Christians.   
   >   
   > To my knowledge, Mormons do not regard themselves as Chrsitians, since they   
   > think that Joseph Smith was the fourth great Prophet (after Adam, Moses and   
   > Jesus.) They call Christians and other non-Mormons "Gentiles".   
      
   The Jehovah's Witnesses explicitly separate themselves from   
   "Christendom", but all the Mormons I know demand to be called   
   "Christians", despite the fact that certain of their doctrines are far   
   more removed from the Christian mainstream than Islam is. (Most   
   especially, they maintain God to be a creature, compared to which,   
   quarrels over Trinitarianism are as nothing.)   
      
   --   
   John W. Kennedy   
   A proud member of the reality-based community.   
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