OK, being the devil's advocate for a moment, let's consider evangelical Christians. (Seriously devil's advocate, since I'm Jewish. ) There is a very basic reason why the name of Christ is used to refer to his followers - because they believe him to have been the son of God. Whatever they may think of Christ's teachings, no matter how much or how little they respect them, they consider Christ to be a deity that died for their sins, and that they can find salvation through Christ's intervention. Thus it makes perfect sense to call the religion by the name of its founder, they're not just talking about a teacher or popularizer, they're talking about someone they consider to be God.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-13 09:58 pm (UTC)