Except that's not what was said. Examining and denouncing extremists is fine. Denying that they're Christians at all so all the "good" Christians aren't associated with them is a fallacy.
Which inevitably happens BY the other Christian sects. "Oh, they're not REAL Christians, they don't do x, y and z if they're really following the word of god"
Eugh... just remembering that was said to my face by a former friend leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Y'know, never mind that Catholics are always considered a cult and some Christians believe they should be wiped out (I've even heard the term 'exterminated' thrown around) for 'corrupting' their belief system, until the numbers need to be bolstered.
The most insane part of the last thing is that for the longest time, the Catholic church was just "The Church". They had a monopoly on Christianity.
Not exactly. The Eastern Orthodox churches have been around for quite a while too, and their version of the story is that the Catholics actually split off from them.
Technically true. The split occured anywhere between 800 and 1054 a.d from memory. It's also a huge theological debate that lasts to this day. It boils down to something called the
filioque controversy which was the last straw and separated the two churches. Why did they differ so much? My guess is time. Be it Rome or Avignon for the papal seat or Constantinople, it took time and a big distance to stay in contact. The different creeds changed by custom. Just to be clear, orthodoxy (a belief or a way of thinking that is accepted as true or correct, according to Webster) holds its name due to this and does predate the Catholic church.
If you're curious about this, be sure to check out the history of Byzantium, most sources and books are either written in english, german, or turkish. It was a pain for my classmates to study that subject in France, where few books have been translated.