Do you mostly hold the same religious beliefs as your parents?

[DC Al Fine]

I come from a mixed household.

Dad comes from a long line of conservative Calvinists. Mom comes from a liberal Protestant denomination (United Church of Canada). While my mother isn't a flaming liberal it certainly causes some conflicts in our household . I took after Dad obviously.

[DC Al Fine]

No for me.

My background is extremely mixed.  My dad is a life-long Hindu (originally from India), while my mom was raised Lutheran here in the Upper Midwest.  She is now very flexible religiously, and her beliefs combine aspects from many traditions.  She likes Unitarianism, and holds some beliefs from the eastern religions.

I was never really raised to belong to a certain tradition, but my personal beliefs fit in most with liberal Protestantism.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America seems to be a good fit for me, and I plan to join after getting certain church positions clarified to me by a pastor.

My mom would be fine with that.  While she no longer holds the traditional beliefs, she doesn't have a problem with liberal Christianity, and certainly not with the Lutheran denomination she was raised in.  My maternal grandmother did want me to get baptized, so I was baptized at the Episcopal church in my neighborhood during my young childhood.  I was never confirmed though, and I've hardly ever been to church.  Being Episcopalian would certainly be a possibility if it turns out that the Lutherans are just too conservative to me, but at least some ELCA congregations seem to be what I'm looking for.

I have little experience with the ELCA and ECUSA (though I have been to one of the services of both, the latter having been a joint worship with my UCC), but I don't think I would consider one more inherently conservative than the other.  If I had to choose which was the more liberal of the two, however, I'd pick the ELCA if only because there is still a decent number of conservative Anglicans in the US and all of the conservative Lutherans are in the LCMS now.

How is the ELCA for liberalism?  I've never heard of them doing anything outlandish, like I hear with the Episcopalians from time to time.

[DC Al Fine]

What I think DC means is that while the ELCA has taken the liberal side of pretty much every political argument, they don't have Spong types running around denying the resurrection either. Despite its political liberalism, the ELCA hasn't theologically jumped the shark to the same extent as the more vocally liberal parts of many other mainline Protestant denominations.

I don't think Spong is a good representative for the vast, vast majority of Episcopalians.  I still think that, as a whole, the ELCA is comparably more liberal than the ECUSA.  If the ELCA and LCMS were one body, however, the opposite would likely be the case.

TJ is correct about what I meant.

As for Spong, I agree that he's not representative of Episcopalians, the fact that he was allowed to continue as Bishop for years after denying the resurrection says a lot about the ECUSA as a denomination.

[DC Al Fine]

The latter issue could be a reason for caution regarding traditional Lutheran doctrine, since Martin Luther probably had views on hell and predestination almost as harsh as those of Calvin. 

Indeed. It's a common misconception that Calvin was some sort of outlier for his time.

[DC Al Fine]

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about-

Best church! Also, almost anything is better then Catholicism. 

damn heathen gringos

damn protestant scum.

Heretic.

He said in one thread that this a protest to what he calls the "liberal Protestant circlejerk" something or other here.

I mean, yeah, I know he's not serious, and I'm probably taking it more personally than I should, but I find the act slightly annoying albeit much less so than his other personas.

Agree with this. Besides, it's not a circle jerk. You have me and TJ to rain on your parade