Comparing World Religions, episode 8: Religions That Branched Off of Christianity

This one will be controversial. I have concluded that several religions are not part of Christianity because they have changed or abandoned major theological components of Christianity: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the nature of reality, the existence of God, etc. I acknowledge that many of these groups claim to be denominations of orthodox Christianity, and I don't deny their right to define their own religious expression. But if the world "Christian" has any meaning, I cannot make the claim that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, or Christian Science (to name a few) are Christian. What I will admit freely is that these groups clearly descended from the Christian tradition, often from American Protestantism. In this lecture I attempt to be unbiased. But - full disclosure - while editing this episode I came to the conclusion that I did a pretty poor job of that. So consider this episode to be a mild polemic from an evangelical Protestant Christian who is trying to make sense of the beliefs of religions that branched of Christianity.