Christianity

Current status; diversity of beliefs;
this web site's section on Christianity

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Note:

It is not a simple task to write about Christianity. There are on the order of 1,500 different Christian faith groups in North America which promote many different and conflicting beliefs. Further, many groups believe that they alone are the "true" Christian church and that all of the others are in error. As a result, one cannot write anything about  Christianity that is acceptable to all faith groups.

Current status of Christianity:

About 33% of the world's population -- in excess of 2 billion people -- regard themselves as Christian. This percentage has been relatively stable for decades. (The second most popular religion is Islam at about 20%. It is growing. If its present growth rate continues, it will to become the dominant religion of the world during in a few decades.)  About 75% of American adults and a similar number of Canadians identify themselves as Christian. This number has recently been dropping almost one percentage point per year. This is mainly due to:

Christianity in North America is a severely divided faith, consisting of  over 1,500 denominations, which are often categorized into conservative, mainline and liberal wings:

An example of diversity of belief: life after death:

There is perhaps no other aspect to Christian belief that contains as much diversity as the expectation of one's life after death. Many Christian's prime focus is on the afterlife for themselves, family, and others. Life on Earth is merely considered a type of anteroom to Heaven:

About this section of our web site:

The main Christian menu is linked to many hundreds of essays covering a wide range of beliefs, practices and social policies. We hope that the essays will help visitors to this web site to understand the great diversity of beliefs and practices found Christian denominations different from their own. It describes how they developed through time, and how they will probably change in the future.

As a minimum, we try to compare and contrast the beliefs of the most conservative and liberal Christians. We realize that many, if not most, Christians hold intermediate views. We also describe the beliefs of the early Christian movements, which are often quite different from those of modern conservative and liberal Christians. Where beliefs of prominent Christian faith groups differ from the conservative and liberal positions, we describe them as well. We often describe the beliefs of the early Christian movements.

We receive many critical Emails about these essays. Some are quite angry and hateful. Some accuse us of promoting our own liberal beliefs. Some say that we are a stealth Islamic, Satanic, Scientology or Mormon group trying to undermine Christianity. Others perceive us as lacking any deeply held beliefs. Still others say that we are just plain wrong. In our opinion, none of these assertions are true. We are a multi-faith group (Agnostic, Atheist, Christian, Wiccan, and Zen Buddhist). Each holds firmly to their own religious and spiritual beliefs.

Our essays describe the wide diversity within Christianity. Yet many of our readers are distressed at seeing their beliefs mentioned beside those of other Christian groups. We have prepared a list of common Emailed complaints from our visitors, along with our responses.

Copyright © 1995 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2008-MAR-02
Author: B.A. Robinson