A Bit of Ranting

I have joined a facebook group about Christianity.  It has been difficult at times to listen to their criticisms and to be the brunt of anti-mormon attacks at times.  A few missionaries from our church have also joined the group, and they have done a much better job of answering these types of attacks than I have.  I think that perhaps more members of our church have not joined this page simply because of the lack of respect shown LDS members, and the amount of anti-mormon propaganda that floods the page.

My most recent conversation was in response to a person who in reply to a comment of mine, posted a link to an anti-mormon website.  I responded that I don't click on any links, even those about other religions.  I told them that I believe that if you want to learn about a religion, you need to go to the source.  Anti-Mormon websites (as well as anti-other religions sites as well) are made by those who are either sadly mis-informed about our beliefs, or are disgruntled members who have an axe to grind, and twist the truth to misrepresent our religion.  I believe the same can be said for anti-Catholic sites, as well as anti-Christianity sites.  The response I got from the administrator of the page was that he felt I was probably not well educated in my religion, and that he was disappointed that our church sites did not discuss the REAL truth behind our religion.  I told him that I am extremely well educated about my religion, and that in fact it is probably him that has been misinformed about our beliefs.  I further said that if he could not find the information on our church website, it is probably because ultimately it isn't part of our beliefs.

The next comment really caught me by surprise.  He said, "In any case, we allow Mormons in the group as long as they don't undermine orthodox Christianity. As long as anything you post conforms to the Nicene Creed, you are welcome."  I replied that I was glad that he allowed us, but that we don't believe the "post-early church" nicene creed.  

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it really hit me that so much of Christianity bases their set of beliefs upon opinions of a conference of people who met to formalize and discuss the core beliefs of Christianity.  In our religion, we believe this came at a time when a great apostasy had already occurred.  Many core Christian beliefs that were common in the early church were discarded at the creation of the nicene creed.  And it's also interesting that many who believe the Nicene creed do not believe in modern revelation, so how can they trust that these people were inspired in writing it?  

It's also very interesting to me that although most Christian churches believe the Nicene creed, they think the Catholic church is of the devil.  The Catholic church was the first church to be organized after the death of the apostles, and the decline of the early church.  From my understanding, most Christian churches today are break-offs of that original Catholic church.  Our church is an exception, in that we believe ours is the original church restored to the earth after a long period of apostasy.  

So it appears that Christianity today will not accept me as Christian unless I accept the Nicene creed.  It doesn't matter that we believe the Bible to be the word of God.  It doesn't matter that we believe Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world.  It doesn't matter that our church bears His name.  What matters to them most is that we don't agree with the opinion of a group of people who formulated the Nicene creed years after the death of the Savior and the apostles.  

I, on the other hand, can accept anyone as Christian that accepts the Savior Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation.  I may disagree with their beliefs, but I don't deny them the right to be called Christian.  In these perilous times, with attacks on religion in general, it's too bad that we don't have more unity among Christians.