I don't feel as strongly about it as you do, Joseph, but I agree that College Football is a minor league.  I'd love to see a true minor league come into existence.  There is one, but it's not great.  A former coworker of mine is a owner/coach of one team here in East Texas and it's mostly high school dropouts, retreads and former college player wannabes.  If you could build a full league with local support then you could have college football be more like baseball: truly amateur.

-E

Of course he's not a socialist.  He's an Absolutist Monarch.

-E

Absolutely agree, and I said as much in my post, though my list wasn't as exhaustive as yours.

-E

Pregnancy is a good reason to marry.  That does preclude there being good reasons to not marry; if one of the parties was a career criminal or an addict, they shouldn't get married.  However, "not being responsible" is not a good enough reason to forgo marriage when pregnant.  After all, it was irresponsibility that got the couple pregnant in the first place.  They're not going to do the baby any favors by continuing to put off responsible behavior.

-E

Not a new idea.  Neal Stephenson already explored it in Snow Crash.

-E

The funniest scene on TV: A Bit of Fry and Laurie Major Donaldson, season 2, episode 2.  I can't post a youtube link, but you can see it on Netflix.

For movies, definitely the Stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera.

-E

In roughly chronological order:

• Pre-20: Supertramp, Billy Joel, Duke Ellington (esp. Live at Newport), New Radicals, Abba
• Mission: Brahms Intermezzi, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Mana, Shakira
• College: Matchbox 20 (esp. Mad Season), Bare Naked Ladies, Chris Merritt's Hello, Little Captain, Cake, Eagles, Eric Whitacre
• Married: Kurt Elling, Beattles, Bobby McFerrin
• Engineer: ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Herbie Hancock
• Special mention: "Weird" Al Yankovic

-E

But she's not criticizing the emphasis on sexual purity, she's criticizing the messaging.  Her prescription is to "educate young people... give them permission to fight back, tell that they do have value, and nothing can change that. That’s what we should be doing."

-E

Considering that Elizabeth served a mission and was married in the temple (both strong indicators of her loyalty to the teachings of the church), it's safe to say that she is definitely not suggesting that abstinence should not be taught.  However, (and it's a point worth discussing) chastity is a difficult subject to talk about and can be fraught with misunderstanding.  In trying to get out the message not to "give it away", too often what kids hear is "don't screw up or you're worthless".

-E

Avatar update, at your request.

-E

Various pictures of our crazy child.  If I get enough likes, I'll post more ;)

-E

Good thing, then, that we haven't given him the satisfaction.

-E

That's not a bad comparison, but it does have a flaw.  Mormons don't view the restoration of the Church as significant a change as Christ fulfilling the law of Moses and establishing a new covenant.  Whereas Christ was replacing the true Church (Judaism/law of Moses) with a wholly new church, in modern times He simple reinstituted the Church from ancient times.

Also, if you changed the "Holy Catholic" to "Restored" in the text of the Apostles Creed, every Mormon would heartily endorse it.  

-E

It's the same thing with baptism: "which baptism is valid?" "Well, the one done this way..."

That's not to say that considering baptism a fundamental obligation of a Christian doesn't make sense.  Even a terse glance at the Bible reveals  how essential baptism is to a truly Christian belief system.  Where things start getting fuzzy is when people start to parse the how and why.  And then you're right back to doctrine.

-E

The 4th view and the 2nd view are the same.  If you say that it depends on membership in The Church, the question remains, "which church?"  "Well, the one that..."

-E

To answer Fred's original question: it depends on who you ask, although you can break responses into 3 general categories.

1. A broadly inclusive definition like the ones you provide
2. A specific definition with a list of several key doctrine which must be embraced
3. Some combination of the above

Atheists and agnostics tend toward the first answer, Orthodox Christians tend towards the 2nd answer, and non-Orthodox tend towards the 3rd.

I find myself in the 3rd camp (makes sense, since I'm a Mormon) because confessing Christs name is the first and most important distinctive characteristic of a Christian.  However, there are a few cases where a person or denomination will reject even the most fundamental ideas about Christ (i.e. divine, resurrected, Son of God) while still trying to claim to be Christian.  In those cases it's usually pretty obvious that they are not sincere in their faith and have ulterior motives.

-E