Atheists as members?

[DSTRen13]

Originally posted by MysticCat81
True and yet not true. I will certainly agree that people and traditions will interpret things differently. But the Councils of Chalcedon and Nicea firmly established Christianity as trinitarian, and that trinitarian doctrine as foundational to Christianity.

I feel pretty confident that the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the vast majority of Protestants (mainline/oldline and Evangelical) would say that one cannot be Christian without accepting trinitarian belief in some form. Now, one can certainly disagree with them, but since they constitute the overwhelming majority of Christians in the world, I question whether "most people" -- at least most Christians -- would say that someone who doesn;t believe in a trinitarian god at all is a Christian.

This isn't a theology board, so I apologize in advance to everyone for this major hijack, but I was raised in a Christian church where many of the members (including myself) did not accept trinitarian doctrine. (Today, I am Unitarian Universalist, if anyone cares.) For most of my life, I've been surrounded by people who only consider very select Protestant denominations to be "real" Christians - Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and my own church (since we rejected the Protestant label) were not allowed in the club. So I am very sensitive about both of these issues. If someone believes themselves to be Christian by their own standards, what do you really care? I mean, do you really know what Christianity was truly intended to be - does anyone today, for that matter?