Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Christianity casts a wide net and embraces the orthodox and the heretical, the fundamental and the bizarre, the lovers of Christ and and nominal Christians.
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It is not fair to say that Christianity embraces the heretical. That's a contradiction in terms. A religion cannot embrace heretical doctrine. It might be possible for "Christianity" in the popular sense, which is perhaps the sense in which he meant it, but this is not the case in the theological sense. It would be like Trinitarians embracing modalism, or squares embracing triangles.
The problem is not so much a case of imperfection. I don't think anyone today or going back to the disciples will claim that the Church is perfect or that Christians are perfect. Paul saying "Wretched man that I am" comes to mind here.
The problem comes when one person claims to have THE PERFECT answer, and tries to distinguish himself from "Christianity". That is dangerous and borderline cultic.