[FJ290]

Roman Catholicism does have structural unity, but in terms of theological disputation, it is as fractured as are the churches that are in the tradition of the Reformation.

I shouldn't laugh, but I can't help it. These intra-Catholic fights on FR seldom rise to the same level as the intra-non-Catholic fights. In fact, I think I see a lot more unity among the Catholic posters.

You say we are just as fractured as those in the Reformation? Hardly.

Mainline Protestant churches no longer dominate NCC Yearbook’s list of top 25 U.S. religious bodies

Three of the largest 25 churches in the U.S. are Pentecostal and six are African American, the yearbook reports.

The list includes the rapidly growing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church in America, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and – largest of all – the Roman Catholic Church.

Take a look a that list and that doesn't even mention every splinter group that is out there among non-Catholics.

[Wallace T.]

You should check Web sites such as www.traditio.com or www.catholictradition.com with respect to the discomfort of the traditionalist wing of Roman Catholicism with the mainstream of their church. They routinely denounce the current Mass as "Protestant, Masonic, and Satanic," and regard the sacraments and the priesthood of those ordained since the late 1960s as invalid. Those Catholic conservatives who accept the present Mass and the Vatican II changes to liturgy and doctrine denounce the more radical traditionalists as schismatics and Magisterium literalists akin in spirit to Protestant fundamentalists. These debates are as fierce as any Calvinist-Arminian or KJV Only vs. Critical Text debates among conservative Protestants. Keep in mind that what I have discussed only deals with the right wing of Roman Catholicism. When you consider the left wing, you have an enormous theological gap. I dare say the chasm between Archbishop Lefevre and Hans Kung is at least as wide as that between Jerry Falwell and Bishop Spong.

As for church growth, you fail to mention that the annual growth rate for the Southern Baptist Convention, a predominantly conservative evangelical denomination, is only slightly smaller than that of the Roman Catholic Church. Keep in mind too that the large majority of Latin American immigrants, who are at the core of the illegal alien problem, are at least nominal Catholics. Of course, both the Southern Baptists and the Assemblies of God (another conservative evangelical denomination) have aggressive outreach programs among Hispanics, and their growth could also be partially due to immigrants. OTOH, there is a drift of liberal Roman Catholics to Episcopalianism, which may explain the growth of that denomination in contrast with the losses experienced by other mainline bodies, and a movement of conservative Episcopalians to Roman Catholicism. The growth of the Orthodox Churches and Mormonism are probably the result of conversions of native born Americans rather than ethnic mission work.