Hi Jaybird,
Based on your statement that The Church "made a wrong turn after the roman takeover" you must believe everything was going right in The Church
before the roman takeover? For the record if that is what you believe
...I agree with you!
Scripture makes it clear that the 12 made everyone feel welcome and to share their ideas. Scripture also makes it clear when they shared ideas that were opposite or not in line with their teaching then
those people, who were causing division in The Church
, were corrected. The purpose of some of the letters in Scripture were written to address those
"divisions amongst you" (1 Corinthians). Another example of correcting wrong practices or teachings of some of the people in The Church was The Council of Jerusalem. At that Council The Church decided what every Christian in the world was to believe/practice. So even though there was an open sharing of ideas that did not give individual Christians to implement/practice/believe those ideas that were opposite of what The Church taught.
I liked Clement of Alexandria and his ideas! Who's ideas in the open society of Alexandria did you like?
Curious Mary