> > > > I have to agree with you; It's hard to walk down the high street in my home town on a weekend without being harangued by Christians of a dozen denominations trying to convince me that any form of belief that isn't *exactly* the same as theirs will be punished by eternal damnation.
> > >
> > > Blah. Now *that's* wrong. There's more freedom within God's Word than *some* people want you to know, whether you do Torah or not.
> > >
> > > > What they don't seem to understand is that if I wanted to be a Christian, I would be by now. It's not as if Croydon is otherwise free of Christian influence.
> > >
> > > Hmm. I didn't know that. The only place I'm even vaguely acquainted with Croydon(or *South* Croydon) from is Doctor Who. I think Sarah Jane Smith wanted to go there.
> > >
> > > > winter"Missionaries always annoy me"mute
> > >
> > > Nyperold
> >
> > Well, we have 3 churches over 1,000 years old. The Archbishop of Cantebury had a home not 500 yards from my house from 1087 to 1753. Half the town has been named after Sir John Whitgift, Archbishop during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The town's coat of arms is made up of ecclesiastical symbols.
> >
> > winter"My old school was on the site of a monastery"mute
>
> I've been considering replying to this for a while, and I finally decided to... I don't think you can say that just because there are churches in your town and a lot of stuff is named after an Archbishop that you know enough about Christianity to make an educated decision about it. I mean, here at my college, just about every building is named after a college president, but I don't know what any of their beliefs or policies are. The airport closest to my home is named after Ronald Reagen (actually, just about everything in DC is named after some president) but I don't know much about US political history. I live 2 blocks away from Georgia Ave. and Colorado Avenue, but I know next to nothing about either of those states. There's a huge Mormon temple not too far from me, but I don't claim to know much about Mormonism, and I'm not about to convert just because that temple is there.
>
> I assume you catch my drift.
>
> Lynette

Of course I do, and that wasn't my point. I think (though I may be alone in this) that there was a subtle change of subject in there. I was originally suggesting that there is a very strong degree of Christianisation that has happened here over the last 1000 years or more, and I don't think that people standing in the High Street shouting at passers by will have any effect. Except maybe to annoy people.

The later posts were simply to suggest how pervasive Christianity has been here in the past. That, of course, says nothing about how Christian the area is now, or how much I know about Chrisitanity.

I apologise for the confusion, but I still think the points are valid separatly.

winter"bleh"mute