Replies

Had you bothered to read the citation mentioning 36,000 above to which you are responding, Mr. Murphy, you would have seen that this post is simply the complete citation of Mr. Armstrong linked the other day via this hyperlink. Within this long post, he gives the segment I cited earlier to another Freeper, Campion, and it is THAT which is presented at the hyperlink with the number, 33,000.

33,000+ denominations of Protestantism and counting

I was at the library one day researching something, and I saw the much talked about Protestant reference, the World Christian Encyclopedia by David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson (2001 edition). I thought I’d see for myself what it says. This is what I found....

David Barrett, et al, does indeed refer to “over 33,000 denominations in 238 countries.” (Table 1-5, vol 1, page 16). This refers to his unique definition of a “Christian denomination” but does not include small ones (congregations of a couple hundred or less), which would dramatically increase this number beyond all imagination. Barrett also states there are 242 total Roman Catholic denominations (year 2000 numbers). So I looked into what he believed these denominations were.

Barrett breaks down his encyclopedic reference by country. So I looked up how many Roman Catholic denominations are within the U.S. according to Barrett. Much to my surprise, Barrett shows ONLY ONE Roman Catholic denomination for the United States. [and continues to the end as shown...]

Mr. Armstrong, in fact, is arguing in his long post to Catholic Answers, that the number 36,000 is probably wrong and overstated, and gives or shows lower figures.

I am beginning to appreciate just how cursory a glance that posts are given. This might be construed as seeing (1) what you want and portraying a "strawman" as opposed to realistic debate, or (2) the "gotcha" phenomenon which engendered the "scorekeeping" response regarding "Irving's Law. Your "buds" might be keeping score and giving you an "atta boy, dude!" but what is this to God who is Revealed Truth?

In any event, readers see through this "gotcha" as evidenced by the confidential Freepmails we in the Catholic Caucus receive asking for more information as to how to join the Catholic Church. Apologetics is not badminton, I fear. The Holy Spirit directs most of the action at a plane far above our mortal efforts.