Answer by A.J. Boyd
Catholic Ecumenist in Rome
There are about 41,000 different Christian denominations in five major 'families' of churches/communion. The percentages in brackets indicate the percent of the Christian population affiliated with each 'family' or group of denominations:
The Catholic Church [50%]
Historic Protestant and Anglican churches [18%]
The Eastern Churches (Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East) [12%]
Pentecostal churches [12%]
Evangelical (non-Pentecostal) [8%]
I assume you figured I was using a number cooked up by an atheist. Nah, a noted Catholic came up with the 41,000 number. I've actually 'liked' the 35,000 number and then add a comparable number of unaffiliated/independent "one of" churches, for a total of around 75,000. The number is most likely vastly larger.
I can hardly imagine any skepticism over the total number of Christian schisms just from one particular schism in the Amish world where one schism formed ENTIRELY over the allowable width of a hat brim. Please DO NOT underestimate the importance and desirability of schisming to Christians. If it was NOT a sacrament of the faith, Christ would have anticipated the problem and tweaked His nascent religion to preclude the practice, -or- Apostle Paul would have received another 'blinding light' missive from the Lord God Almighty banning the practice.
I also note that in less than 200 years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) have themselves experienced over 100 schisms. My personal favorite Mormon schism is The Congregation of Jehovah's Presbytery of Zion, The Baneemyites. I pretty much picked that one at random. At one time, they had hundreds of members, there may not be too many (any?) active members today.
Might as well get on board with 'mainline' Christian belief and practice and embrace the schism, hate to see anyone out there twisting in the wind on this topic by themselves.
Catholic Ecumenist in Rome
There are about 41,000 different Christian denominations in five major 'families' of churches/communion. The percentages in brackets indicate the percent of the Christian population affiliated with each 'family' or group of denominations:
The Catholic Church [50%]
Historic Protestant and Anglican churches [18%]
The Eastern Churches (Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East) [12%]
Pentecostal churches [12%]
Evangelical (non-Pentecostal) [8%]
I assume you figured I was using a number cooked up by an atheist. Nah, a noted Catholic came up with the 41,000 number. I've actually 'liked' the 35,000 number and then add a comparable number of unaffiliated/independent "one of" churches, for a total of around 75,000. The number is most likely vastly larger.
I can hardly imagine any skepticism over the total number of Christian schisms just from one particular schism in the Amish world where one schism formed ENTIRELY over the allowable width of a hat brim. Please DO NOT underestimate the importance and desirability of schisming to Christians. If it was NOT a sacrament of the faith, Christ would have anticipated the problem and tweaked His nascent religion to preclude the practice, -or- Apostle Paul would have received another 'blinding light' missive from the Lord God Almighty banning the practice.
I also note that in less than 200 years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) have themselves experienced over 100 schisms. My personal favorite Mormon schism is The Congregation of Jehovah's Presbytery of Zion, The Baneemyites. I pretty much picked that one at random. At one time, they had hundreds of members, there may not be too many (any?) active members today.
Might as well get on board with 'mainline' Christian belief and practice and embrace the schism, hate to see anyone out there twisting in the wind on this topic by themselves.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
