LDS appears to me to be a bit like Islam (and to lesser extant Catholicism) there is officially declared core doctrines and then there are a large number of "folk beliefs", wide spread beliefs that aren't official doctrines but comonly held.
I (and I think many other non-LDS) still get confused between which beleifs are core LDS and which are "folk beliefs" (things which may be true but have never been codified into scripture).
Many Protestants once saw a number of Catholic practices and beliefs in an extremely negative way, today although we may still disagree many have learned that with proper study and understanding of what is being done and believed that the gaps are not as large as we once thought.
Probably more pertinient to LDS is the SDA example, as they were once widely held as being a "cult" by many Protestants but are now largely seen as eccentric fellow Christians (even to some extent being excepted as Evanglelicals).
I don't see the gap with the LDS ever being closed (although once many would have thought the same of Catholics and Protestants), you are a distinct expression of Christianity that is at several points irrevocabley separated from the rest of us.
I do however think that if the essential LDS doctrines were expressed carefully and nuanced correctly, the differences in a large numbr of areas are not as great as they appear initially.
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