I think what you're saying is true, but I also think that we have an obligation, through spreading the Word, to make a concerted effort to bring in the sheaves, so to speak. I think in general, we are failing in this. For instance, when high-profile protestant church leaders are becoming entangled in extra-martial affairs and the Catholic church is caught in its own sex scandals, it hurts Christians as a whole because it damages our ability to speak to moral issues with authority.
So instead of sitting around arguing the merits of transubstantiation, the question should be: holy cow! More and more people are turning away from Christ and rejecting the church. Why? And what can we do to fix this?
“For instance, when high-profile protestant church leaders are becoming entangled in extra-martial affairs and the Catholic church is caught in its own sex scandals, it hurts Christians as a whole because it damages our ability to speak to moral issues with authority.”
I agree, and I agree that we need to engage the lost with more fervor than we engage each other over something like transubstantiation. But in the end, we need to accept that it may not be our failures as Christians that are a stumbling block to this generation, but Jesus Christ Himself.
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”