[ejonesie22]

I gave ample examples.

The sharing of creeds, the shared core beliefs the shared similarities in liturgy and doctrine to varying degrees, the acceptance of certain sacraments and rituals between the various denominations.

I think the issue you seem to have is one both Reaganaut and I have pointed out, you are getting caught up in lumping everything even remotely labeled “Christian”, everyone and everything that simply invokes the name of Christ into one big pile. There are and have been many sects come and go that say they are Christian, but like the extreme example I gave you earlier of giving a Muslim a pass because they say they are “Christian”, saying it and being one in realty are two different things. The words are not enough, whether they be on the lips or on the building.

The core “denominations”, the Catholics, the Orthodox, and the main line Protestants share far more in common than they have disagreed on, something that becomes more and more a part of the Christian world every day. Indeed the many historic disagreements that over the centuries under wrongheaded guidance and leadership inspired by the Evil One, would have set us at each others throats are fading to some extent, at least in importance, as we all stress the commonalities that we share.

Are there exceptions, certainly, but oddly enough the exceptions have been always in the hands of the few (and growing fewer) But I am blessed to live in a time were I see Fire and Brimstone Southern Baptist cry with their Catholic friends when their beloved Pope passes, where I have seen a hundred Methodists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Baptists and others, both lay and clergy, stand in a circle together holding hands while an Anglican Priest from African with one of the most beautiful and distinctive voices I have ever heard offers an almost poetic prayer to end a weekend of sharing Christ's message of Grace and Salvation with 42 prisoners, to follow a historic tradition where whether I am standing in an Orthodox sanctuary or a Methodist prayer meeting I feel at home surrounded by fellow followers of Christ.

[americanophile]

No, you never addressed my points, not to my satisfaction anyway. There are serious differences, and always have been, in those who describe themselves as Christians, but we are at crossed points here anyway. For mine was a narrow one - namely that Islam whose adherents I adjudge to be far stronger, more numerous, and successful at prosthelytizing than the most ardent of Mormons constitutes a greater threat to Christianity. This in turn was assumed to mean that I accepted Mormonism as an equally valid Christian denomination (for purposes of my discussion it's not necessary), and that I feared the Muslims only temporally, being unable to comprehend that Christians should be most concerned with the soul and our post-earthly incarnation and therefore that death should not concern us. That I fail to understand that is erroneous of course, I read the Bible too; it is in light of this that I believe Islam to be the greater threat, not in spite of it. If it is souls we are concerned with should not the billion and a half lost to Islam concern us? Should it not concern us that the void left by atheism and apathy in Europe and elsewhere will not be filled by Mormonism in all likelihood, but by Islam - a faith from which there is no escape...unlike Mormonism, which whatever its hold over its adherents usually doesn't slaughter those who leave the faith and convert to others as some on this form can attest?