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snowy · 07-05-2007, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abaya

Eh, perhaps you know too many vague Christians. Most of the American Evangelical Christians I know are pretty damn strict about their behavior, not least concerning sex.

Yeah, and most of the Episcopalians I know are pretty vague...so you end up with two ends of the spectrum under the same giant umbrella. The thing is, noodlebee, is that Christians divide themselves up underneath that giant umbrella, and how they practice their faith is determined based on what sect of Christianity they are apart of.

So you start off with Catholics and Protestants, and then you can break that down further into mainline Protestant churches, which are numerous:

Quote:

The Association of Religion Data Archives considers these denominations to be mainline:[5]

* American Baptist Churches in the USA 1,442,824 members (2001)[6]
* Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Cilicia
* Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Etchmiadzin
* Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, North American Dioceses 120,000 members (1989)[7]
* Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 804,842 members (2001)[8]
* Congregational Christian Churches, (not part of any national CCC body)
* Netherlands Reformed Congregations 9,395 members (2001) (actually conservative, not mainline)[9]
* Macedonian Orthodox Church: American Diocese
* Episcopal Church
* Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
* Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 4,850,000 members (2007)[10]
* International Council of Community Churches 200,263 members (2000)[11]
* Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
* Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches 44,000 members (1998)[12]
* Moravian Church in America, Alaska Province
* Moravian Church in America, Northern Province 24,650 members (2003)[13]
* Moravian Church in America, Southern Province 21,513 members (1991)[14]
* National Association of Congregational Christian Churches 65,569 members (2000)[15]
* North American Baptist Conference
* Presbyterian Church (USA) 2,300,000 members (2007)[16]
* Reformed Church in America 285,453 members (2001)[17]
* Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
* United Church of Christ 1,359,105 members (2001)[18]
* United Methodist Church 8,070,000 members (2006)[19]

The largest U.S. mainline churches are sometimes referred to as the Seven Sisters of American Protestantism. [20] The term was apparently coined by William Hutchison[21] in reference to the major liberal groups of American Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Congregationalists / United Church of Christ, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians during the period between 1900 and 1960.

There are also evangelical and non-denominational churches, which would be towards the right of the spectrum. This should give you an idea of what they believe:

Quote:

The 2004 survey of Religion and politics in the United States [2] identified the Evangelical percentage of the population at 26.3%; while Catholics are 22% and Mainline Protestants make up 16%. This is the fourth survey undertaken by Dr. Green to measure political attitudes and religion in the United States. In the 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the figures for these same groups are 28.6% (Evangelical), 24.5% (Catholics), and 13.9% (Mainline Protestant.) The latter figures are based on a 2001 study of the self-described religious identification of the adult population for 1990 and 2001 from the Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York. [5]

Barna Research Group [1] surveyed Christians in the United States in 2004 and asked nine questions to determine whether the respondent was an evangelical Christian. Seven of the questions asked were:

1. Are you a born again Christian?
2. Is your faith very important in your life today?
3. Do you believe you have a personal responsibility to share your religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians?
4. Do you believe that Satan exists?
5. Do you believe that eternal salvation is possible only through faith, not works?
6. Do you believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth?
7. Do you believe that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today?

The survey methodology was not given on this website. The questions asked by the group do not necessarily represent all the characteristics of evangelical Christians. This survey found evangelicals to be a subset of the Born agains.

The National Association of Evangelicals is a U.S. agency which coordinates cooperative ministry for its member denominations.

The problem is that outside of mainline Protestantism, which is formed of older, well-organized churches, most evangelical or non-denominational churches are young and not as well organized into national networks (except for the Southern Baptist Convention, etc).

Either way, trying to divide Christians up neatly is damn near impossible. I wonder how God is going to do it come Judgment Day.