> As far as I'm concerned, anyone who self-identifies honestly as a "Christian" is one, regardless of how incongruent their actions and opinions seem to be with some of the teachings of some of the denominations of that religion.
I understand where you're coming from, but this is just an unworkable definition. It reminds me of a snapshot of a social media post I saw which read, "I'm a vegan who eats meat. Yes, we exist." "People trying to follow Jesus and take his teachings seriously" certainly isn't a perfect definition, but it's a lot more useful than "anyone who self-identifies as a Christian".
There's a huge difference here: you would have a very, very difficult time finding anyone who identifies as a vegan and also eats meat knowingly and willingly. However, Christians who don't fit your definition of "true Christian" are a large part of the US voting population, so much that the "No True Scotsman" fallacy seems to apply here. Even worse, if we look at Christians over the last two millennia, especially during the middle ages, the vast majority of them don't appear to be "true Christians" according to your definition.
I understand where you're coming from, but this is just an unworkable definition. It reminds me of a snapshot of a social media post I saw which read, "I'm a vegan who eats meat. Yes, we exist." "People trying to follow Jesus and take his teachings seriously" certainly isn't a perfect definition, but it's a lot more useful than "anyone who self-identifies as a Christian".