The World Almanac probably lists over 100 different protestant denominations along with memebership figures for the United States.
Those with memberships over one million include the Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ. These have all been around a long time (well, UCC as a name came about in 1957 but was a merger of the much older Congregational and Evangelical & Reformed churches) and could certainly be considered among the mainstream protestant groups.
I have been a member of two of them, both of which subscribe to the Apostle’s creed and practice baptism and communion as sacrements. But I would be hard pressed to point to major differences. I am mainly talking about doctrinal differences rather than differences in practice such as whether they stand, sit or kneel during worship. With some groups merging over time, it would seem that the differences would be more subtle than profound.
Just what are the major religious doctrine differences among these groups?
Wow, I actually studied this for a while on my own…took me about two weeks and I still could not explain it in 1000 words or less.
Check out the following link and do some quick searches:
Just so you know, most churches started out from one and slowly branched off because of differences that could not be worked out. As that happened, others had revelations that came to them from a higher power, starting another religion (Mormom Church), even though they grew up with a different religion. As times went on, each of these churches with their differences slowly adapted their own belief.
But they do all believe in a higher power, God and an afterlife.
An Episcopalian is a Presbyterian with a trust fund.
A Presbyterian is a Methodist with a college education.
And a Methodist is a Baptist with shoes.
This is an old joke – VERY old, obviously – nowadays practically all Baptists have shoes and some have trust funds – but it points up some of the social history of American Protestant denominations.
Tom Skerrit, playing a Presbeterian minister in A River Runs Through It opined that a Methodists is a Baptist who can read.
That aside there is a lot of variety within each denimination as well. I am an ELCA Lutheran which means we’re at the liberal end of the scale and my particular congregation is even moreso, pushing for things like gay and lesbian clergy to be allowed to be in committed relationships rather than being forced to be celibate.
We’re a Liturgical church so if you squint a bit our service looks sorta like R.C. mass. Keep in mind that Luther never wanted to leave the Roman Catholic church but rather to reform it. We say both the apostle’s and Nicene creeds which profess our belief in the catholic church but use the term in the sense of being universal as opposed to specifically R.C.
When I was a kid, my folks took me to the Presbyterian church. It was a compromise for both of them. Both were from other protestant sects. The minister at our church, a pompous windbag named Dr. George Taggart, wore a black robe in church. I believe the Methodist and Baptist ministers do not wear robes.
Various Christian sects spend a good deal of energy claiming that they have the right and true way to reach God and heaven, “unlike THOSE people.” For all their faults, I must commend the Presbyterians for teaching us that other faiths were just other ways of looking at God, and that Jews and Catholics probably had as good a chance at heaven as we did.