[aMorePerfectUnion]

What was? Asking saints to intercede on behalf of Christians existed in Greece before Rome conquered it? Really? That's news to me -- and all historians, considering Rome conquered Greece in 146 BC.

No, dear Antoninus, praying to a pantheon of lower gods, as Rome does with departed saints for every category.

The Orthodox and the Catholic Churches were one prior to AD 1054. Both practiced intercessory prayer to the saints and veneration of relics and both continue to do so. It is only the new guys who invented new and strange doctrines in the 16th century who don't avail themselves of these practices.

Exactly. It predated the split.

It's America. If you like your paganism, you can keep your paganism.

But it isn't Christian - nor Apostolic.

[Antoninus]

No, dear Antoninus, praying to a pantheon of lower gods, as Rome does with departed saints for every category.

No Christian, now or then, has ever equated the saints with "lower gods". That's another 16th century invention or purposeful misunderstanding of the relationship between God and the saints as taught by the Church Fathers from the beginning.

It's America. If you like your paganism, you can keep your paganism. But it isn't Christian - nor Apostolic.

Guys who follow the teachings of those who had new "truths" revealed to them 1,500 years after the resurrection of Jesus don't get to decide what's Christian or Apostolic. Sorry.