Need clarity about the christian family tree.

Tags: Spirituality And Religion, Christianity, Protestantism
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I'm reading a book about the history of education in the US and I am bafled (once again) by all the sects of christianity. The author talks about the heavy majority of protestants in the early days and also talks of a slew of sects as if they were all the same. So, I ask you, are the following all subsets of the protestant sect?:

puritan
quaker
baptiste
presbyterian

(I thought I had more, but I lost my list)

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I found my list, those are all I had written down. I assume that if quaker is protestant, that shaker was too..... yes? What else?

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Uh, yeah, I think so. Don't forget the anabaptist sects. I think the Shakers are included, and fairly sure of the Mennonite. I take Protestant to be any Christian not of the Catholic faith.

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Ooooohhhh, that'd be an easier distinction!

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Yeah, but I think there are only 4 of them around. Mennonites were all that came to mind, but now I'm willing to add the Amish.

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Them Baptist yokels claim that they are not Protestant (but I don't know why).

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<sigh> Will it ever be clear to me? Nope, don't think so.

Night all......

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Will it ever be clear?! It's freakin' religion, man!

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In the US alone, there are some 1000 to 1500 (depending on how and by whom classified) subset sects of Protestant Christianity.

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How about the Methodists, Jehova's Witnesses, Episcopalians,
Mormons, Lutherans, and Presbyterians?

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I do have a "Family Tree" somewhere, no idea where it is though, breaks it all down by year, lead reformer/founder..etc. For the most part, Protestant = non-Catholic will do.

1. any Western Christian who is not an adherent of a Catholic, Anglican, or Eastern Church.
2. an adherent of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any group descended from them.

------

Anglican - The Church of England - Episcopalian...basically Catholic light.

Eastern Church - Eastern Orthodox - Russian, Greek Orthodox - basically Catholic heavy.

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CalamityJane wrote:

How about the Methodists, Jehova's Witnesses, Episcopalians,
Mormons, Lutherans, and Presbyterians?

Methodists {John Wesley} Presbyterians {Calvin,Knox} and Lutherans {Martin Luther, the man who started it all} are all Protestants.

Episcopalians are a branch of the Catholic church....no Pope, but they have a somewhat similar position, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Mormons claim to be a unique religious entity, as well as the Jehova's, and they both very well may be stand alone religions, but if I had to put them into a group, I'd have to go with the Primitive Christian Church, or First Century Church group. They believe they predate the Catholic church, and follow a very strict interpretation of the Bible...a low key, no frills group much like the Mormons and Jehova's.

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echi wrote

Quote:

Them Baptist yokels claim that they are not Protestant (but I don't know why).

baptists do classify themselves as protestants

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This one is very simple, and small...probably have to save it then blow it up as I did to be able to read it.

http://www.aroundomaha.com/cn/stjohn/tree_of_church_history.jpg

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littlek, I teach this to our 7th and 8th graders at church and actually have a handout on the 'tree of Protestantism" (in the shape of a tree) that I could send you if you pm me contact info.

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JPB - I don't know if it's that important, but thank you for the offer. It's more of a nagging confusion and only at times when it 'comes up' somehow.

Thanks all, this has been helpful. Timber, that statistic is almost outrageous!

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littlek wrote:

Timber, that statistic is almost outrageous!

Outrageous? Yup ... not even "almost outrageous", its just plain-and-simple outrageous. However, its accurate.

Quote:

There are on the order of 1,500 denominations, para-church organizations, and other groups in the U.S. who consider themselves to be Christian. 1 Added to this are thousands of independent Christian congregations which are not affiliated with a denomination.
Source

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kate4christ03 wrote:

echi wrote
Quote:
Them Baptist yokels claim that they are not Protestant (but I don't know why).

baptists do classify themselves as protestants

Looks like we're both half-right. Well, I'd say I'm half-right, and you're half-wrong. (just kidding)

Anyway, I found this on wikipedia.org:

Quote:

The label Protestant is rejected by some Baptists (primarily those in the Landmark movement) because in their view Baptists do not have a direct connection to Luther, Calvin or the Roman Catholic Church but have separately existed since the early church days (having never been a part of the Roman Catholic church, as such they are not "protesting" anything). Other Baptists accept the Protestant label as a demographic concept that describes churches who share similar theologies of sola scriptura, sola fide, the priesthood of all believers and other positions that Luther, Calvin and traditional reformers held in contrast to the Roman Catholic Church in the 1500s.

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timberlandko wrote:

littlek wrote:
Timber, that statistic is almost outrageous!
Outrageous? Yup ... not even "almost outrageous", its just plain-and-simple outrageous. However, its accurate.

Quote:
There are on the order of 1,500 denominations, para-church organizations, and other groups in the U.S. who consider themselves to be Christian. 1 Added to this are thousands of independent Christian congregations which are not affiliated with a denomination.
Source

and all of them say they are the "right" one.

wow, I guess I had thought about it that deeply. Before reading this I suppose I always thought Catholic, Jew and any other Christian relegion lumped in with "Protestant"

That of course doesn't even get into all the other religions out there.

littlek, if you don't mind, I've got a kinda related question I've wondered about....

OK, growing up RC, it was a big deal to convert to something else....

I know a number of people who consider themselves religious, of some sort of Protestant faith, who, when they married, converted over to their spouses religion.

Why is that? I mean, weren't you strong enough in your faith to say, "no, this is what I believe?"
I'm right now thinking of someone I know rather well, who really is religious and follows her faith. She converted to being a Lutheran from I don't know what when she married. When she and her husband moved here, it took them a long, long time to join a church, to find the one Lutheran church in the area that was right for them. She evidently was just as strong about her faith before she married (30 years ago).

why do you think that happens?

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I'll let someone who has strong faith or a conversion under thier belt answer that one!

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Need clarity about the christian family tree.

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