# Red doors on churches

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-doors-on-churches/8180>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 5, 2000, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-doors-on-churches/8180 "2000-03-05T17:58:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2000, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-doors-on-churches/8180/1 "2000-03-05T17:58:00Z")

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A short drive down the main street of my town will take you past four churches: Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist. All these buildings have front doors painted red. Is there some significance? P.S.: I noticed that the local Catholic church building has a brown wooden door.

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-doors-on-churches/8180/2 "2000-03-06T06:20:00Z")

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Protestant churches always have red doors so the theses will stand out.

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**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-doors-on-churches/8180/3 "2000-03-06T06:56:00Z")

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The original red doors were those that the Hebrew slaves used to distinquish themselves from their Egyptian masters. This made it easier for God to be selective when it came to cursing the Egyptians with all those plagues in the book of Exodus.

During the Reformation, Protestant churches were distinquished from those loyal to Rome by red doors. Whether the Protestants painted them red or the Catholics did, I don’t know. Soon the practice became tradition and the red paint was said to represent the blood of Protestant martyrs or the blood of Christ.

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**Author:** ![NickyLarson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-doors-on-churches/8180/4 "2000-03-06T02:46:00Z")

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Just my two sense worth, but to continue the theory about the red representing blood, could not it be the blood of the lamb, alerting the angel of death to pass over that house?  
The Catholic Church I fell away from had red doors; in the last ten years or so, I happened to notice they were changed to brown.

* * *

“If I pinch my nose with my fingers, close my mouth tight,  
and blow real hard, I can make my ears bleed. It’s  
not as cool as Superman’s X-ray vision, but it’s my own  
special talent.”

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**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-doors-on-churches/8180/5 "2000-03-07T06:14:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> The Catholic Church I fell away from had red doors; in the last ten years or so, I happened to notice they were changed to brown.

## Yep, that’ll happen when the blood dries…

The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik