[logos]

Honestly, I think these splinterngs are not of the Holy Spirit, for at the last supper Jesus prayed that we may all be one as He and the Father are one.

I probably wasn't as clear in my comments as I should have been. I certainly don't think that every schism was of the Holy Spirit - only the possibility that some were. For instance, the split that is most likely about to occur in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is definitely not of the Holy Spirit. Those in our denomination who deny the divinity of Jesus, and advocate strenuously for the ordination of unrepentant homosexuals are clearly working for "the other side".

At the same time, there shouldn't be much argument that the "church wars" and schisms of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries provided the impetus which resulted in the Christianization of North America much earlier than would have occurred otherwise. Or do you not agree?

[Romulus]

Thanks for the clarification. Even though I'm still not able to agree with you, I feel better about where you're coming from. I do believe (and the Catholic Church teaches) that the visible Church is not the whole Church, and that, though the institutional Catholic Church is the most reliable source of doctrine, the Holy Spirit will not utterly shun men who are open to grace and respectful of natural law.

At the same time, there shouldn't be much argument that the "church wars" and schisms of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries provided the impetus which resulted in the Christianization of North America much earlier than would have occurred otherwise. Or do you not agree?

I'm not so sure. Columbus saw to it that his voyages included a missionary element. Also, notwithstanding the fact that the conquistadors' chief motivation was loot, there's no question that they perceived the horror of the Aztec human sacrifice culture as demonically and essentially anti-Christian, and swiftly supplanted it with Christianity (and their own colonial rule, to be sure). And French Jesuits were very active among Indians in Canada and the Mississippi Valley. The earliest English settlements OTOH were either commercial (Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay Colony), or else religious separatists not interested in evangelization but merely freedom from Crown interference (the Mayflower colony, Roger Williams, William Penn, etc.) As late as the mid-1700s, the English colonists' relative indifference to missionary work proved a disadvantage during the French and Indian war, as the historical French effort at establishing a religious and diplomatic presence among the Indians paid off with an alliance that left the English exposed on many fronts.