The Free Christians movement began in Lebanon in the tenth century. They asserted that Jesus never mentioned that priests, bishops, or popes should tell people what to believe. Largely overshadowed by the Protestant Reformation, Free Christians suffered because they were poorly organized and never had a powerful teacher or even a spokesperson to provide an appearance of consistency. The church fragmented early and often, usually along ethnic differences, the semites, for example, seeking a Christianity more consistent with Judeism, and the families of Greek heritage more sexual liberty. Today, descendants of the first Free Christians, still in Lebanon, tell others that they are Coptics. As followers of a foreign faith their practices are less likely to be questioned. They don’t actually have a church building, but they continue to believe, from family to family, what they have always believed.
Unknown religions