Sometimes I envy the Muslims. They have only one simple creed:

There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.

If you can say that sincerely, you're a Muslim. If you can't, you aren't. Muslims argue about a lot of things, but they don't get into arguments about who is a Muslim and who isn't.

Christians have tried making creeds. There's a bunch of them: the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, Athanasian Creed, and more. On top of that, they have various Confessions of Faith, Catechisms, manifestos and what-not. None of them are simple, and your everyday Christian doesn't pay much attention to them anyway.

A long, long time ago, I got into a long series of discussions with a conservative Christian minister about doctrine. He was trying to convert me. I had married a woman who was nominally a member of his church, although she had her private doubts. He failed to convince me to join, but I did take him seriously and I learned some things from him.

He produced lots of Bible verses to support the idea that the essence of Christianity is this: Christ died for your sins. If you believe that, you're a Christian—regardless of what other crazy things you might believe. And if you don't believe that, you're not a Christian, regardless of how high an esteem you might have for Jesus and his teachings.

Ironically, I accepted his definition, and consequently decided I was not a Christian. I have maintained that position for 40+ years, and I see no reason to change it.

So, to all you who want to argue whether the members of the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church are "true Christians" or not—I ask: Do they believe that Christ died for their sins? If they do, they're Christians. If they don't, they're not. It's that simple. Case closed.

Oh, I realize that won't put an end to the arguments. But hopefully it will change the terms of the argument to something that makes more sense to everybody.