Actual answer, perhaps, factual I don’t think so. General Questions is for factual questions.
More to the point, I moved this to Great Debates because your OP is an invitation to witnessing, and our forum descriptions clearly specify that witnessing belongs in Great Debates.
Clears it up? Not at all, actually. Why is there not a factual answer. Seems some concrete responses prove that it does. Furthermore, it is not an invitation to witnessing, if people do so dispite this, why move the question? Just inform, stop, delete, warn, etc. the witnessers…
Because what you’re asking for is subjective. Look at your list.
chrisitan–okay, pretty straightforward, except some christians don’t even consider other denominations to be truly christian.
not real high maintenance on rituals–define not real high. Do you mean none of that pesky sit-stand-kneel-stand-kneel-sit stuff that I like to call “aerobic worship” or is that okay as long as you don’t have to bother with confession, testifying or other interactive rituals?
not too mystical, more down-to-earth kinda jesus–see #1
not anti-tech/modern world–okay, rule out Amish and that leaves a lot of territory.
progressive on issues like women, gays, social justice, etc.–again, define “progressive.” Do you mean they don’t actively stone gays or require women to wear burkas, or have gays and women in the clergy? Even if progressive means open minded about issues there’s still a lot of gray area regarding just how progressive people really are versus how progressive they think they are.
It’s too open to interpretation to really give a concrete answer.
There are, as you note, churches which come quite close to fulfilling your criteria, and of course others which are not so close, and some which are extreme distances from what you seek.
However, such an analysis calls for subjective evaluation, including the statements of people’s experiences with regard to which communion best fills their own needs. That last is close enough to a definition of “witnessing” to satisfy this board’s standards.
Further, note that as photopat briefly examines your criteria, they are a trifle “fuzzy” – you did not say “has gay clergy and performs gay marriages” or “adheres strictly to a defined creed” with reference to points #5 and #1, for example, but left the definitions a bit nebulous – in my opinion, a wise move, since a fair amount of flexibility in applying them to actual specific denominational stances is required. But again this leaves the door open to subjectivity – not a desirable trait in a GQ answer.
Quakers (Friends) indeed can fit the bill- there is a whole spectrum of conservative to liberal Friends. Apparently two Friends pastors here in Indiana have written a book promoting Universal Salvation & some Friends have called (unsuccessfully) for their defrocking. I was amazed that there were still some Friends bodies that conservative.
Based on Polycarp and photopat’s statements large numbers of GQ questions are not GQ. Just because a question has an aproximate answer does not mean it isn’t possible to give a “factual” answer. I’m not asking for opinions, but for matching (which {almost?} always includes judgement calls) to criteria. Many people who answered above found a way to answer the questions factually, or with approximations. Witness (hehe…) good FriarTed’s answer. While he ends with religious advice, no problem, his answer is based on knowledge of what’s close in various respects.
Indeed, that so many people gave the UCC as an answer is interesting. That some people started “witnessing” isn’t really by fault. Religion just gets some people jumpy…the question didn’t ask or require it. I think a more appropriate response from the moderators would have been to ask people to stick to the question and not get off the topic. Instead, the moderator seems to have such distain for witnessing (not that I don’t find it peeving) that he moved this out of spite.