Where is a neutral website that compares the differences amongst Christian denominations?

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
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PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let's be civil.
Angnostics, and Atheists - assume we are talking about the diferences between two myths.
Christians - turn the other cheek.
Religious non-Christians - read if you are interested.

I tried to talk about what I knew in this thread HERE and I received a surprising number of PMs saying.
"Thank you. That was really helpful. I understand why some folks believe this and others believe that." etc?

Let?s explore this some more if anyone is interested. You don?t have to be Christian. We could be comparing the Norse Eddas and Finish Kalevala. I am not looking to convert, proselytize or any other sort of thing. This is simply to be descriptive, not normative. You don?t have to believe any of this. We could be talking about Klingon and Vulcan ideologies. I am not saying Kilngons are right, or the one true religion, I am just trying to codify their beliefs and compare and contrast them to Vulcan beliefs. So, lets all try to be civil, and no one insult another?s beliefs or egg another on. We do that all to often in other threads.

I find that a number of non-Christians have no real idea what Christians believe, but some non-Christians have an incredible wealth of knowledge about the theology. And, amongst Christians, there is, unfortunately, an incredible about of suspicion and lack of knowledge regarding different denominations.

Lets look at one source of the trouble, not to point fingers, but to show how animosity has lingered for over 500 years:
I think we can almost all agree the Catholic Church had become corrupt in the 1500?s.
Well, do you throw the baby out with the bath water or just sort of reform it a bit?
At issue is Will the British Empire be Catholic or Protestant?
Mary Queen of Scotts is the Monarch, and a Catholic.
John Knox is a Protestant, and believes that Mary does not even have the God given right to the Monarchy, which would then open the way for a Protestant Monarch.
He sites the ?curse on the woman? from Genesis 3:16
?Unto the woman He (God) said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.?

Well, obviously to John, this means we can?t have a woman ruling over men; therefore no woman can ever be a legitimate Monarch. All these ?good? Christians on both side proceeded to kill the heck out of each other for years, and to this day many Protestants believe Catholics are not Christians, and vice versa

Cliff's Notes
The question is not who is right. The question is where is a neutral web site that almost has a graph with denominations on one side and beliefs on the other axis.



 

DurocShark

Lifer
Apr 18, 2001
15,708
5
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http://www.carm.org

Christian
Apologetics
Research
Ministry

Started by a friend of mine. He's an ordained minister, so everything has a Calvinistic bent, but all in all it's a pretty straight site.
 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
81
Originally posted by: Riprorin
That's going to be hard to find as there are hundreds of Christian sects and denominations.

Yes.
Maybe someone has done somethign with the basics ones:
African Methodist Episcopal
African Methodist Episcopal Zion
African Orthodox Church
American Baptist Churches USA
Amish
Anglican
Antiochian Orthodox
Assemblies of God
Baptist
Catholic
Christian Science
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Church of Scotland
Churches of Christ
Coptic Orthodox
Disciples of Christ
Episcopal
Evangelical Lutheran Church
Free Church of Scotland
Greek Orthodox
Jehovah's Witnesses
Lutheran
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Methodist
Moravian Church
Orthodox
Pentecostal
Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Presbyterian Church in America
Reformed Presbyterian Church
Russian Orthodox
Seventh-day Adventist
Shaker
Southern Baptist Convention
Unification Church
Unitarian-Universalism
United Church of Christ
United Methodist Church
 

Riprorin

Banned
Apr 25, 2000
9,634
0
0
If you're really aiming for civility, I would suggest that you avoid inflammatory comments like this:

And, amongst Christians, there is, unfortunately, an incredible about (sic) of suspicion and lack of knowledge regarding different denominations.

 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
81
Originally posted by: Riprorin
If you're really aiming for civility, I would suggest that you avoid inflammatory comments like this:

And, amongst Christians, there is, unfortunately, an incredible about (sic) of suspicion and lack of knowledge regarding different denominations.

I mean to be civil.
But, that is certainly true, and unfortunate.
We have 2 billion Christians.
How many do you suppose can break down the differences between Orthodox, Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, all 3 Presbyterian Churches, the histstory of the AME Church, and Differences between Pentecostals, and Assymblies of God, just for starters?
 

Warthog912

Golden Member
Jun 17, 2001
1,653
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Originally posted by: Riprorin
That's going to be hard to find as there are hundreds of Christian sects and denominations.

Here's one site that hits the major classes. I haven't read so I can't make any claims about its accuracy.

Sorting Christian faith groups

I second this site, I've personally looked deeply at this site in order t differenciate between denominations. It's a pretty good source, as best as I've found matter of fact.
 

Woodchuck2000

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2002
1,632
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The problem you'll find is that beliefs vary from church to church, even within the same denomination. Things like the degree of fundamentalism accepted are too vague to be consistent across a given denomination.

Part of the problem with Christianity IMHO (speaking as an ex-Christian, this is) is that people feel the need to pigeon-hole themselves and/or their beliefs and it causes friction where none need exist.
 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
81
Originally posted by: Riprorin
That's going to be hard to find as there are hundreds of Christian sects and denominations.

Here's one site that hits the major classes. I haven't read so I can't make any claims about its accuracy.

Sorting Christian faith groups


That is really really good.
Thank you.
 

Riprorin

Banned
Apr 25, 2000
9,634
0
0
Originally posted by: glen
Originally posted by: Riprorin
If you're really aiming for civility, I would suggest that you avoid inflammatory comments like this:

And, amongst Christians, there is, unfortunately, an incredible about (sic) of suspicion and lack of knowledge regarding different denominations.

I mean to be civil.
But, that is certainly true, and unfortunate.
We have 2 billion Christians.
How many do you suppose can break down the differences between Orthodox, Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, all 3 Presbyterian Churches, the histstory of the AME Church, and Differences between Pentecostals, and Assymblies of God, just for starters?

Not many. It's a topic that you could easily devote your life to studying.

I think that most people though (I hope so, at least) know something about the Reformation and the Great Schism.

I'm not sure that it's critical to know the nuances, for example, among all of the different conservative Baptist denominations.

Do you really think that there is an "incredible amount of suspicion". I haven't personally observed that.
 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
81
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Originally posted by: glen
Originally posted by: Riprorin
If you're really aiming for civility, I would suggest that you avoid inflammatory comments like this:

And, amongst Christians, there is, unfortunately, an incredible about (sic) of suspicion and lack of knowledge regarding different denominations.

I mean to be civil.
But, that is certainly true, and unfortunate.
We have 2 billion Christians.
How many do you suppose can break down the differences between Orthodox, Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, all 3 Presbyterian Churches, the histstory of the AME Church, and Differences between Pentecostals, and Assymblies of God, just for starters?

Not many. It's a topic that you could easily devote your life to studying.
I think that most people though (I hope so, at least) know something about the Reformation and the Great Schism.

I'm not sure that it's critical to know the nuances, for example, among all of the different conservative Baptist denominations.

Do you really think that there is an "incredible amount of suspicion". I haven't personally observed that.

I have. It kills me. I have heard more people than I can count say that Catholics are nto Christians and are going to hell! Makes me embarased to call myself a Christian. I have a huge group of friends, Atheist, agnostic, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Orthodox, Coptic, Anglican, Baptist, Calvanist, Presbyterian, etc... For me, it is often helpful if I am able to explain why the different folks do things differently. I try to avoid saying who is right, simply this is what they believe. Often I have been able to tlak to folks how are suspicius of one group and show them that they are fairly close in belief. Especially when I can say, "your group believes THIS because of this passage, and that group believes THAT becasue of that passage." Folks, say "oh, well. That makes sense,. I disagree, but I kwon why they think that. It does seem to be backed up in scripture. It is all good."