Man..... I read this article. It was awsome. I'm on your team. As they say on the street " You da man wit da plan!!!!!"

Helen Whitney's question, "What can you say than can be used for the rest of the world?" God lives. Christ lives. They are as real as anything in this world. They are not an abstract theological philosphy.

The Heavens are open to anyone who will ask and respectfully wait for an answer. There are more things real than what you can simply see.

Is that a convincing approach to belief in Mormonism? It's like he's saying look, all the other Christian religions are crazy too. And Claudia's clever approach of showing them that other people believe the same things? There are larger groups who believe in more unlikely things, like UFOs.

I like Richard Bushman, but it's strange to see someone in his position believe and yet not offer anything better as justification for his belief. It seems he just accepts his Mormonism as an accident of birth. I'd love to ask him, "If you were raised Baptist and knew all that you know about the Mormon faith, would you convert?"

I enjoy most of what Bushman says and writes, but his quote in this article seems to blame Mormons themselves for their Christian identity crisis, saying we set ourselves apart (i.e. with the label on military dog tags) then complain when we are set-apart from the rest of Christianity. I disagree.

Dog tags aren't marked "Christian." They are marked "Catholic," "Protestant" and "LDS." Mormons never asked to be labeled as non-Christian. Few Mormons would object to being called "unorthodox" Christians. We are indeed outside of mainstream Christianity, and have no problem with that. But can anyone blame us for getting annoyed when others repeatedly deny that we believe in Christ?

It isn't a labeling problem. It's a misrepresentation of our beliefs ... a denial of the center of our faith. Bushman seems to say we are trying to have it both ways ... to gain admittance into the Christian club while retaining our uniqueness. I think it's simply about Mormons wanting to be seen for who they really are. We don't object to being different. What we object to is the idea that we must subscribe to popular Christian creeds in order to be Christians.