A little education on Christian groups, please.

In My Humble Opinion
1

So it occurs to me that Lady Chance’s family is ‘Associate Reform Presbyterian’.

This leads me to believe that at one point there were straight Presbyterians, then some thought it had gone wrong and formed a ‘reformed’ church, then some split from that and only ‘associated’ with those guys.

Ugh. That’s a lot of subgrouping.

And then it occurred to me that I really have no understanding about the differences between the Christian sects. Off the top of my head I can think of:

Baptist
Southern Baptist
Primitive Baptist
Methodist
Catholic
Anglican
Presbyterian
Latter Day Saints
Anabaptists
Calvinist
Lutheran
Pentecostal
Mennonite
Unitarian
Quakers
Adventist
Apostolic
Episcopal
Jehovah’s Witness

And I must be missing about 2000 others. So clue me in on what I missed. That list is just from churches I pass while driving around the DC area.

So what’s the deal here? Can some willing (and tolerant) soul help me to understand all the different groups?

Specifically, how do they differ on points of doctrine?

Are they tolerant of each other?

Does a pentecostalite tell an adventistite ‘It’s OK that we worship differently…we’re all going to heaven together” or do they each expect the other to burn?

Also, what accounts for having so many different denominations all centered on one base religion? Did it all start with the reformation?

Clearly, I’m flailing about here. I understand that basics of Christianity (birth, death, resurrection, died to redeem people) but beyond that I’m lost.

Show a brother some love, will you?

2

@1968 the Methodist combined with the United Brethren and became the United Methodists.

I guess some churches didn’t go along with it.

I don’t know what Free Methodists are. Does anyone know?

3

Well, this Brethren in Christ Guy told me and a bunch of other Anglicans a great joke about why there’ll be a big wall that we can’t see over in Heaven…

That wasn’t what you asked.

The only groups I know much about at all are the Reformed Presbyterians, Anglicans of different sort, Catholics, Russian Orthodox, Baptist, Mennonite, and there’s a group called the Church of the Holy Tabernacle Light Inc. up from where my husband used to work.

Yeah, I would say the splitting started with the Reformation, and IMO once the option to split became available, splittage started happening all over the place.

I don’t know half the differences, but I’ll try with the ones I do know, and if I’m wrong, I hope someone will correct me.

The Reformed Presbyterians are Calvinists, which means they believe in inability of humans to do anything pleasing to God or to turn to Him of our own free will. There are actually five points to the structure of that belief, and I’ll look for a link later. Usually they’re extremely traditional and believe in strict gender roles. They don’t sing hymns, they sing psalms. Oh, yeah- the women wear headcoverings, too.

The Mennonites are a subset of the Anabaptists. The main foci of their Christian understanding is service and pacificism- they run relief and charity stuff worldwide. They’re also against infant baptism.

A friend of mine is a Free Brethren member- that’s the most interesting service I’ve attended. They’re totally non-liturgical, which means there’s no order at all (mind-boggling for an Anglican like me). They sit together, and then someone gets up and suggests a hymn. Another silence, and someone gets up and does a reading, etc. It’s Spirit-led worship. They’re also very traditional, with headcoverings, and the women don’t take any leadership roles.

I’ll think about this, and get back to you with more.

Answer: the Baptists will be on the other side. They don’t believe anyone else is getting into Heaven, and they couldn’t handle the shock.

4

Try Gaustad’s A Religious History of the American People. I covered as much of it as I could in 15 weeks when I used to teach Religion in America, but always felt like I ran out of time.

5

No, there were sects described by Paul in the Epistles. And while Luther’s reformation is what you hear about in history classes, there were other “protestant” groups at that time. The Moravian Church for example, began in 1457. But they aren’t on your list. :slight_smile: I think religions have sects because people like to argue over rules. And most religions are all about rules.
Methodists were started by a guy named John Wesley. As you might guess from the name, they were part of the 18th century movement to put “method” or science in everything. Methodists are known for non-discrimination, good hymns and the pursuit of a godly life.
IIRC, Free methods split from the other Methodists because they felt that pew-tax was wrong. Therefore all their seats were “free”. And of course, they claim to be closer to the true spirit of Wesley.
Quakers, or The Religious Society of Friends, was an offshoot of the Church of England. Known for their pacifism, silence, oats and equality of the sexes, Quakers are heavily involved in world-wide missions and relief programs. They differ from most of the others on your list in that they believe that your personal relationship with god is more important than outward display, this includes displays such as water baptism and bread-and-wine communion.
I’d never heard of primitive Baptists, but they’ve got a long FAQ.

6

That’s an incredibly broad question that has undoubtably been the topic of a large number of scholarly texts. You should be able to find some kind of dictionary of christian denominations at your local bookstore (or perhaps a christian bookstore). One other small detail: many christian denominations (or sects as you call them) would take great offense at the inclusion of groups like the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unitarians as “Christian”.

7

Hey, let’s not forget our Eastern buddies, the Orthodox churches! And they split off long before the Reformation, too. You also forgot the Copts…

8

I did think about them. But I don’t pass any of them on my commute.

Call it a sample-size error!

So enlighten me!

9

Probably about as upset as many Latter Day Saints would be at being excluded from that group.

But that’s an issue for the pits and has been done way too many times.

10

Not to mention the Antioch.

Reminds me of the joke, where people of each religion are put into different rooms in Heaven, only they have to be quiet when they pass Room 4. Someone finally asks St. Peter what’s up with that, and he says “Oh, that’s the room for the Catholics/Southern Baptists/Fundamentalists/Pentecostals-they think they’re the only ones here.”

11

Pretty big question. I’m afraid all I can offer is a brief distinction between two you have listed:

Southern Baptists like to march to the river and pour all the confiscated alcohol out into the water.

Episcopalians gather a short way downstream and can be heard frolicking in the river and singing the hymn “We shall gather by the river . . .”

12

This, I can answer: NO. :smiley:

The rest, wait for someone who’s deeply acquainted with Christian history and theology to show up. Just be patient.

13

As a former fundamentalist baptist (General Association of Regular Baptist Churches) , I can tell you something about a lot of those groups, mainly in the context of why they’re going to hell.

Southern Baptist – SBC espouses the seperation of church and state
Primitive Baptist – they use real wine during communion
Methodist – too liberal, they dally with ideas such as female ministers, a mythical hell, etc.
Catholic – worship of the Virgin Mary/Pope/Saints
Anglican – that the queen of England is their head poses problems with female leaders
Presbyterian – either too liberal (women in the pulpit) or filthy Calvinists
Latter Day Saints – not even Christian
Anabaptists – these are ok
Calvinist – doctrine of predestination will damn them
Lutheran – christening children
Pentecostal – speaking in tongues – obviously need exorcism
Mennonite – like anabaptists, but too liberal
Unitarian – again, not even Christian
Quakers – treat women as equals
Adventist – keep kosher, when its clearly sinful to do so
Apostolic – like the pentecostals, but worse
Episcopal – too liberal, some churches allow women in the pulpit
Jehovah’s Witness – once again, not even Christian

I was raised this way, it doesn’t mean I didn’t grow up :wink:

14

We did not split off. The west schismed away from us.

15

Filioque, anyone? :smiley:

::d&r really fast::

16

Oh God, let’s see if I can remember this:

A Baptist is a Pentecostal with shoes
A Presbyterian is a Baptist with a late-model pickup truck
A Methodist is a Presbyterian with wingtips
An Episcopalian is a Methodist with a portfolio
A Lutheran is an Episcopalian with a Summer house
Can you tell I’m a Catholic?

Jonathan Chance, where in the DC area is an Anabaptist church?

17

I think I passed it in rural Maryland up in Frederick County.

This is more confusing than I thought.

Anyone else care to break them into groups?

18

Lilith Fair writes:

> @1968 the Methodist combined with the United Brethren and
> became the United Methodists.

Actually, in 1968 the Methodist church and the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) church combined to form the United Methodists. The EUB church had a couple of decades earlier formed from the union of the Evangelical and the United Brethren churches. A couple of decades before that, the United Brethren church formed from the combination of two Brethren churches (the exact names of which I don’t recall), healing a split that happened just before the Civil War when they broke into a northern and a southern church.

19

Don’t you mean the Irish Catholics? :wink:

20

According to either Time or Life or Newsweek ( it’s one of those three, I’m positive) from about 6 years ago, they had an excellent article about Christianity and how there are over 25,000 versions of this religion.

That thought always intrigued me.

One man that so many beleive in, yet not five people can agree on the right way to celebrate the goodness of his life or teachings.

It’s so comical it hurts.