Talk Elections

This applies to the official church positions, the average member of each denomination and the average politician of each denomination.

List the most liberal and conservative denominations (on social issues) in each case.

Feel free to explain your answers.

I'm not an expert on the various denominations, but from personal experience here is my list:

Liberal

Quaker
UCC
Methodist
Roman Catholic
LDS
Baptist
Jehovah's whiteness

Conservative

Not enough exposure to other branches.

?!

I think he ranked them in from most liberal to most conservative.

Oh, haha, that makes a lot more sense.  D'oy.  I thought he was saying he had no exposure to any conservative branches.

nice

My Lutheran additions put in.

Based on my experiences with the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) it'd probably go somewhere between ECLA and Roman Catholic. Here, I put it where I think it best fits.

Liberal to conservative

Unitarian-Universalist
Quaker
The Metropolitan Community Church
United Church of Christ
The Episcopal Church in the US
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Presbyterian Church, USA
The Moravian Church
The Hutterite/Bruderhoff
The United Methodist Church
The Church of the Brethren
The American Baptist Church
The African-Methodist Episcopal Church
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Reformed Church in America
National Missionary Baptist Association
The Evangelical Covenant Church
The Salvation Army
The Churches of God, General Conference
The Wesleyan Church
The Christian Reformed Church
The Free Methodist Church
The Evangelical Friends Church
The Church of God, Anderson, Indiana
Association of Vineyard Churches
The Baptist General Conference
The Grace Brethern Church
The Evangelical Mennonite Church
The Missionary Church
Conservative Baptist Association
The Assemblies of God
The Christian and Missionary Alliance
The Evangelical Free Church
The Church of the Nazarene
Churches of God in Christ
United Pentecostal Church
The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod
Southern Baptist Convention
General Association of Regular Baptists
The Lutheran Church, Wisconsin Synod
The Presbyterian Church In America
Churches of God, Pentecostal
Various Holiness Churches
Fundamental Baptist Fellowship

Keep in mind, there are often vast differences within denominations.  For example, I know of American Baptist congregations that are extremely conservative, even though the denomination as a whole is quite progressive.  The Presbyterian Church in America is extremely conservative politically, yet some individual pastors and congregations are quite liberal on some issues.  You can find conservative, Evangelical Episcopalian and United Church of Christ denominations...and liberal Southern Baptist Churches.  Such instances are anomalies, but they exist.

Also, some denominations may be very liberal on some issues -- such as the death penalty, poverty issues and war -- but extremely conservative on issues like homosexuality and abortion rights.

The above is hardly an exhaustive list.  And I purposely limited it to Protestant denominations, not because I do not consider Catholic and Orthodox churches to be Christian (on the contrary!) -- I simply feel they deserve their own breakdown.  And I would prefer to leave that to a Catholic and/or Orthodox poster.  I also did not include any non-Christian religions, with the exception of the Unitarian-Universalists...some of whom embrace Christianity and many of whom do not.

"Jehovah's whiteness"? Really?

Anyway, I was about to post the following expanded list when JSojourner made his post. Oh well. Here it is anyway.

I think it depends on where you are...for example, most Catholics I know are liberal and most Episcopal I know are conservative, even though obviously the Episcopal church as a whole is much more liberal.

Agreed... the vast majority of Catholics I know (and I know quite a few) are very conservative, and that's obviously not representative of the rest of the nation's Catholics.

UUs aren't really Christians. I mean, I go to services regularly, and my beliefs are more than a bit away from Christianity. I fit right in.

I'm Greek Orthodox, but I honestly can't say where we fit in on the spectrum. I've never heard anything preached against certain groups in our church.

At least around here, I think of the Orthodox as being a conservative version of the Catholic church.

Right.  You can be a Christian and a member of a UU congregation.  But you can also be a Buddhist or an Atheist.  I simply including the UU on my list because some of their members profess Christianity.

Yeah. I used to go to a UU church. I was among a few that did profess Christ, though most didn't. I am now exclusively Trinitarian, though I do have some universalist leakage.

:o

On second thought, your left wing social stances are no longer surprising.

Ehhhh.... the Patriarch of Constantanople has a similiar social gospel as the Bishop of Rome. It's just Greek Orthodox parishoners are more likely to buck the head of the church on certain issues.

I wonder why JS has such a huge chip in his shoulder over the PCA.

I don't.  It depends.  There's Steve Brown...one of the finest clergymen in ANY denomination.  And he's PCA.

http://keylife.org/

And then there are these lunatics...

D. James Kennedy
Rousas Rushdoony
Gary "stone witches and homosxuals" North