The differences

... may be in the absolutes. I had a couple of interesting conversations last night about the recent brouhaha here and on Mellow Drama about the LDS practice of baptism for the dead. The first one essentially boiled down to an agreement that if it was being done by and for people who were not blood related, (as opposed to the vast majority that are done for members' ancestors) then permission should be obtained from the family before proceeding.
The conversation I had with J was more interesting. There's a small but active community of LDS law students here at the school. And according to J, we sort of stick out. She told me a couple of stories of people approaching other members here on campus with all kinds of crazy questions (specific reference deleted by request). I told J in response that I'd had so many conversations regarding religion here on campus that I was starting to monitor myself, to make sure that I wasn't the one bringing it up. At any rate, my friends here on campus know me, and (hopefully) know what I stand for. The Bible refers to believers as "a peculiar people". (1st Peter 2:9, and part of the description of this blog) I guess there's some truth to that.