[Maxel]

Originally Posted by AnthonyB

Maxel,

Thanks for your post, I'll try to digest it.

Again, my apologies for the length, but... it feels wrong to cut it. I'm usually able to cut a good chunk out of long posts like that, but not this time.

Originally Posted by AnthonyB

I visited a LDS chapel about a month ago, (trying to get a copy of BoM). One of my initial impressions was how american it felt. (I have also often got the same impressions from some pentecostal churches I have visited.) The pictures were very reverent but I doubt a Pro Hart would feel right placed on the walls and the place very spotless but the colour scheme felt like a US mall. I can't help feel that you "one true church" might just be a tad monocultural for me to feel really at home.

Were you visiting a chapel in America? Might that be the source of its... American-ness?

There are chapels all throughout the world, most of them are built among the same architectural guidelines, when possible. The decorations and inside designs are probably a bit different.

Originally Posted by AnthonyB

The NT does a very interesting but little noted thing....The first books of Paul's letters are actually ordered so as to address the major ethnic groups that inhabited large parts of the world he was reaching out to.

The Pauline epistles are arranged by length first and foremost (except for Hebrews, which was placed last due to disputes about it actually being written by Paul).

Originally Posted by AnthonyB

Do I think it would be good for all Christians to give up their creeds and non biblical pratices and return to NT Christianity, most certainly. However I'd rather praise God for the good I see then spend my days cursing men for our collective failings. Seek unity in the essentials of the Christian faith, leave room for diversity on the unessentials and hopefully love everyone regardless.

Have you considered this condition: seeking to find the NT Christianity, and yet not cursing others' religions and beliefs because they differ from one's own? That is the stance of the LDS church: there is much good and truth found in the other religions of the world, but the LDS church has the fullness of Christ's Gospel and the most truth of them all.

It might seem that stance is denigrating to other religions, but there is no way to more charitably state the case of the church- unless we are to start saying it does not hold the fullness of truth, which we believe it does.