I haven't a clue how many proselytizing, literalist, absolutist, authoritarian salvationists there are out there. I seriously doubt there is a label that subsumes someone who's an all-fiver. I don't think it matters. It's the individual threads, the ideas and their practice, that need to be reconciled somehow with with the modern world. Through a process of give and take, preferably, since that's the modern way..
You do a terrific job of labeling and defining things. Once you have done that, a lot of my fears go away but new (and more frightening)ones come up.
The problem does not have much to do with Christianity. Even the five subgroups you single out do not threaten or are threatened by modernity. As long as there is transparency, whatever conflicts there are - are easily reconciled or become harmless.
It is mostly the hypocrites that hide behind labels that are the real problem.
I doubt there are many Christians (or Jews, Moslems, etc.) that can turn "love thy neighbor" into something that resembles "kill those neighbors that may pose danger".
But it is hypocrites that we need to identify, define their real belief systems, label them and assess as to how many of them there are. |
