Is this an invitation for Mormon "bashing?"
I think there is hardly any comaparison between the foudners of Mormonism and the Apostles.
We are supposed to believe that an angle named Mormoni, never before mentioned in the Bible, appeared before an illiterate upstate New Yorker named Joseph Smith, provided him with a set of golden tablets written in an unknown language, gave him some magic glasses which allowed him to read said tablets through a cloth which covered them, that these tablets were transcribed into a "Book of Mormon", that several witneses, all of whom appear to be related to one another or to Smith himself, "witnessed" this and attested to its veracity, and finally - that an entire civilization - no traces of which have ever been found - existed in North America before the Europeans came and was detailed in the same Book of Mormon?
I don't think Mormons today are fools or insincere people. I believe most of them believe this - probably because cultural and family ties are strong. But that hardly makes the story of Joseph Smith and the Bible in any way, manner, shape or form analogous.
Nope. Just pointing out that early Christians and early Mormon, within the lifetimes of their religions founders, deeply believed in somethign the rest of the world found silly, and were willign to suffer for their beliefs. If you can accept that level of belief from Mormons and still think their religion is false/shaky/whatever, then there's no reason to assume early Christians were in any way special.
I haven't heard of "Mormoni" angles, but I remember learning about Obtuse, Acute and Right angles in school. :-)