[bkaycee]

Interesting, since the original claim of 30,000 prot denoms comes from an over simplistic reading of Barret's, World Christian trends, let me quote the SAME source for another interesting statistic.

Barret (the SAME source) tags The Roman Church's persecutions were responsible for over 5 MILLION deaths since the 33 AD.

The SAME source also lists The Roman church with over 240 denominations.

[Natural Law]

"The SAME source also lists The Roman church with over 240 denominations."

So you too are among those avoiding answering the premise question; what is your working definition of a faction, a sect, an order and a denomination.

When you define "denomination" as a religious organization with a unique authority, which is how Catholicism defines it, we may well find that the number of Protestant demoninations has achieved a number very near the actual number of professed Protestants.