#but the upshot is i still know a bunch of doctrinal trivia

[thecottageinthedark]

The really funny bit about Christianity in particular is that there IS actually an official definition, that Christians invented and approved, of what makes someone a True Christian....and it has absolutely nothing to do with behaviour or morality. It's called the Nicene Creed and it's a bunch of statements about bits of doctrine that are both basic and specific to Christianity. A true Christian is someone whose beliefs include all the statements in the Creed.

For some reason nobody seems to remember this when they start trying to disown other Christians.

The "No True Scotsman" fallacy should be renamed to the "No True Christian" fallacy based on how often I see Christians (both progressive Christians and conservative/evangelical Christians) use it to claim other Christians shouldn't count because they're doing Christianity wrong.