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Well, you are not quite as well informed as you might think . I believe that you would be very hard pressed to find any Baptists who believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary (that is , after all what the brothers and sisters fuss is all about). To make a snide comment about how the reader does not understand the terminology used in the Middle East is rather lame. If this is a prerequisite, then the whole Bible- thing is out since it is kind of based there and the terminology of THE ENTIRE THING would be , in your view, unintelligible. As to the juxtaposing of the "sects" and Islam, well , I would suggest you all have more to squirm about than do those who simply call themselves Christian. Consider the fact that Islam holds to be true your belief in the immaculate conception. I believe that is a sticking point for RC/ EO relations. However, Islam holds this position, it is mentioned in the quran (3:47) that Mary remained a virgin, unlike the heretics who cannot understand the middle-eastern conotation of Matthew 1:25 and Luke 2:7 and come away thinking that the words mean what they say.

Let me make sure I understand your position correctly. In order to fully understand Scripture it is important to never attain any knowledge about the customs and language of the peoples found within.

That's where you want to plant your flag? On perpetuating misconceptions due to linguistic and cultural differences?

Well, you are not quite as well informed as you might think . I believe that you would be very hard pressed to find any Baptists who believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary

Oh, I'll agree on the first statement -- as I've said before, the umbrella term Protestant includes too many contradictory views even on basic dogma. As in your point, you've brought out that even the Baptists, a sub-denomination within the Protestant umbrella group has quite divergent points of view on dogma on it's own.

As to the juxtaposing of the "sects" and Islam, well , I would suggest you all have more to squirm about than do those who simply call themselves Christian. Consider the fact that Islam holds to be true your belief in the immaculate conception.

No, not really -- you don't believe in the immaculate conception? Then you would not be a Trinitarian (belief that Christ and God are one and the same)

Furthermore, Isllam is IMHO a heresy, a break-away from the teachings of The Church, a corruption of faith.

To make a snide comment about how the reader does not understand the terminology used in the Middle East is rather lame. If this is a prerequisite, then the whole Bible- thing is out since it is kind of based there and the terminology of THE ENTIRE THING would be , in your view, unintelligible

it's not a snide comment -- it's a simple statement that if you base your understanding purely on the human words in the Bible, without understanding the context, you will be wrong. I'll give you a simple example from my own life -- when I was 12 there was this friend of mine who thought the Nazis were right to ask for German land back in WWII. I didn't know so I read about it -- initially it seemed that perhaps they were right: perhaps the treaty of Versailles was unfair. but then you read back and find that the Germans had conquered Slavic lands in the 19th century. Then you read back further to the Teutonic knights and the Slavic and Germanics invasions of Europe in the Middle Ages. In short, things are never as simple as they seem even in a human matter like history. And to understand God, our solitary human individuality cannot work -- that's why God left us a Church, a community of believers to talk and learn TOGETHER.