I’m not treally out to start a debate but it is a religion question…
We hear so much in America of ‘fundamentalist’ churches and of Christian conservatives - mainly in regards to Protestant denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention. Also while Roman Catholics are not solidly conservative in the political sense, the Church’s positions on gay rights, contraception, and divorce are unyielding. And Mormons are very politically and morally conservative as a rule. Orthodox churches are mostly unknown to me, where I live there may be one in the whole region.
But we don’t hear much about the more 'liberal’denominations. I mean from time to time there will be a story on a Methodist church somewhere that allows gay members, but I don’t know how that reflects upon the entire Methodist denomination. Are there any fairly large denominations (not necessarily the very big ones like Lutheranism, Methodism, Presbyteriansim, Episcopalian/Anglican) that have relatively liberal stands on any or all of the following?
Contraception, abortion
Gays and Lesbians
Evolution and Cosmology
Interfaith marriages, tolerant attitudes toward other denominations and religions.
Womens rights, equal roles for women clergy, or women in hierarchical church positions.
I am mainly thinking (and here’s where there is room for debate) that the ‘noisiness’ of the religious right tends to obscure the fact that in America, Christian churches are somewhat more ideologically diverse than commonly thought.
Most Quaker groups, Unitarians (even though that’s moved away from mainstream Christianity), American Baptists, some Episcopalians, the United Church of Christ, RLDS, (they have a new name, but I can’t remember it), the United Methodists.
Can somebody tell me something more about the RLDS? My family comes from that church, but I know next to nothing about it other than my gay uncle was recently ordained.
While different church bodies can be more or less liberal, the denomination as a whole is very liberal. The Disciples claim to have “No creed but Christ”, and members are encouraged to interpret scripture for themselves in a way that is meaningful. I have also found that in most Disciples churches they do not take a literal view of scripture, so, yes, I’d say as Christian churches go they are liberal.
What is inherently unchristian about that? Many members of our UU congregation consider themselves christian (not me, however). They say they are inspired by the teachings of Jesus, and try to emulate him.
I concur, Guin. It just seemed to me (and if I was mistakenly projecting my own opinions into her message, my bad) that the poster I quoted was indicating that UU and christian were mutually exclusive.
It just evoked echos of what I learned in my community as a child: “Catholics aren’t really christians, LDS’ aren’t christians, and we’re not too sure about the methodists, either.” After hearing all that, I pretty much decided that I can’t be a christian either.
The Presbyterian USA church would be considered pretty liberal. They are not to be confused with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) or the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), both of which are very conservative.
Why are UU’s not Christian? Because while they might be “inspired” by the teachings of Jesus, they do not profess him, and him only, as Savior and Lord. That is the bare minimum, imho, for being a Christian.
While in theory there’s no reason why a particular Unitarian-Universalist couldn’t be a Christian, a lot of UU’s are refugees from Christian churches and tend to be extremely suspicious of anyone claiming to be a Christian. At the UU church in Charlottesville, VA, some people were openly against having a Christian group in the membership.
I’m saddened if that’s the case. To me it indicates that someone is not practicing the principles of UUism. Of course if said “christian” member is there only to witness and enlighten the heretics, it would not be inappropriate to ask them to modify their behavior. But nearly one quarter of our congregation identifies itself as “christian”, albeit more along the lines of being inspired by the message of Jesus and wishing to follow his teachings, rather than worship him.
Most believers in the Trinity generally don’t find a comfortable ‘fit’ with Unitarians.
WV_Women, if it is your humble opinion, isn’t it a little much to be painting them with such a broad brush? The definition of “Christian” isn’t exactly set by a single authority. My definition is “if you say you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian”, and so far seems to work just fine.
