Christianity - One Religion? I Think Not.

[MineralMan]

No other major world religion is divided into so many denominations and splinter groups. It appears that Christians are the most dedicated splitters of all. If someone tells you they belong to a Christian church and you ask them "which Christian church?" you'll get, perhaps, the name of one of the major denominations. Ask them "Which Baptist (or whatever) church?" You'll get another category. You can repeat that even further until you get down to the actual splinter group their church belongs to. Unless, that is, their particular church has split off even further and is sui generis.

In reality, very little information is provided if someone just tells you he or she is a Christian. What that means, exactly, regarding the doctrine they profess, how their church's liturgy is performed, and exactly what they believe about just about anything, is unclear. It won't be clear, really, even if they tell you the address of the church they attend, unless you go talk to the pastor of that specific church about doctrine, etc.

So, is there even really a Christian religion? I'm not so sure.

If you'd like to delve just below the surface of Christian sectarianism and denominalizatioism, you can visit the link below for a list of major denominations of Christianity and their sub-denominations. But, it doesn't end there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations

My favorite denomination of Christianity is the Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptist denomination. For its impossible to understand name and its very odd doctrinal approach to Christianity, I think it captures the unruly spirit of sectarianism the best:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit_Predestinarian_Baptists

Delve into this morass only if you have unlimited time and patience. It's an education, I can tell you.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. "Christianity" covers a whole lot of variations.

And it has ever since the very beginning. The prevailing denomination will designate often designate groups holding variant beliefs as heresies. In the early years, once the Catholic Church became the "official" religion under Constantine, the Council of Nicaea decided what the "correct" doctrine should be, and anything else was heretical. Here's a list of Christian "heresies": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_heresies These days most people don't worry about being called heretics because the Catholic Church no longer can do much besides complain. I know a number of Lutherans who think Mormons are heretics, though Lutherans were once considered heretics themselves. In this country the Baptists really got schismatic, and in just about any small town in the South there would be multiple Baptist churches, all of which claimed to be the only true religion. I think it has a lot to do with people tending to be tribal and intolerant, whether it's about religion or anything else.

[MineralMan]

2. Yes it does, and the generic term has become essentially meaningless

as an indicator of the beliefs of an individual. That's my point, really.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. If a person represents him/herself as "Christian" I tend to assume

the person is a conservative evangelical/fundamentalist. Those who are not in that category usually identify themselves as belonging to a specific denomination, e.g. Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. Sometimes the differences in denominations have more to do with organization and hierarchy than actual doctrine, and sometimes the differences are just bizarrely nitpicky. Supposedly anybody who believes that Jesus was the son of God is "Christian" but it all breaks down after that.

[MineralMan]

4. Yah, but not all denominations look at it exactly that way,

with regard to Jesus. It's complicated. For example there are trinitarians and non-trinitarians.

And it's not just fundies who refer to themselves as Christians, either. Not by any means.

Once you step out of the mainline denominations, you can't take anything for granted, doctrine-wise.

[Mariana]

6. You can be pretty certain about one belief.

Virtually all believe they are True Christians. All those misguided souls who disagree with them are doing it wrong.

[MineralMan]

11. Very true

[guillaumeb]

5. Is this a response to any particular claim,

or simply a recognition of the obvious?

[MineralMan]

7. It's an original DU post by me.

It is the beginning of a discussion. This is the Religion Group. I welcome your comments on the subject.

[guillaumeb]

16. I feel that each believer must find the path.

I also feel that the essential message of Jesus is "to do to others....etc".

Others obviously disagree.

[Mariana]

9. Starting a brand new thread in response

to something posted in another thread is your thing, Gil. Most people don't do that.

[guillaumeb]

17. Back to the "most people" meme again? I understand. eom

[Htom Sirveaux]

8. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be...

At the dawn of Christianity, it was Paul v. James/Peter/John and Paul v. the congregations whose theology he complains of. Then it was the Jewish Christians v. the proto-orthodox (whose theologies would be declared heresy by future generations) v. the Marcionites v. the Gnostics. Then it was the Roman church v. the Eastern churches and the Roman church v. other "heretics". Then it was the Romans v. the Eastern Orthodox and the Romans v. the Protestants. And on and on and on...

[MineralMan]

10. Yes. And the splitting just keeps on.

The Presbyterian church split over LGBT issues. Women as clergy, baptism issues, whatever. In some cases, it's a disagreement over interpretation of a single Bible verse or the translation. Doctrine and dogma.

The splitting continues.

[Voltaire2]

12. Buddhism is probably just as splintered.

But they had a 500 year head start.

And ignoring minor sects Islam and Christianity have a similar set of major denominations.

Since all religions are basically making shit up it is not surprising that all sorts of different nonsense emerges.

[SwissTony]

13. May I introduce a moment of levity?

The best religious joke ever as voted by some people, somewhere, sometime...but I don't disagree

>>>

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.


>>>

Thank you, Emo Philips.

Lifted from a Guardian piece from 2005.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/sep/29/comedy.religion

[MineralMan]

14. Levity is always welcome. Whimsy, too.

Thanks!

[Act_of_Reparation]

15. Of course not.

Religion doesn't exist independently from its adherents. Individual variances translate to institutional variances.