Mainline
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Mainline (disambiguation).
In the United States, the mainline (also sometimes called mainstream) churches are those Protestant denominations with a potpourri of conservative, moderate, and liberal theologies coexisting which historically have been open to new ideas and societal changes without abandoning what they consider to be the historical basis of the Christian faith.[1] This places them in the theological center between the more liberal groups such as Unitarian Universalism and the more conservative fundamentalist and evangelical churches.
Mainline churches have been increasingly open to the ordination of women. They have been far from uniform in their reaction to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals, but have been far less dogmatic on the issue than the Catholic Church and the more conservative Protestant churches. Mainline churches take a moderate view with regard to military service – all provide chaplains to the United States armed forces and none are historically peace churches except the Church of the Brethren – but all express reservations about aggressive use of military force for any reason.
The hallmark of the mainline churches is moderation. Only a few members or clergy of these churches would condemn the use of alcohol in moderation. Their theologies tend to be moderate and influenced, consciously or not, by higher criticism. Most ministers and most members are comfortable with modern-language (including inclusive language) translations of the Bible.
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[edit] The nature of biblical truth
Most mainline traditions follow the traditional Christian belief in the triune nature of God, but do not require strict acceptance of everything written about or spoken by Jesus in the New Testament. In particular, some mainline Christians do not accept the biblical statement of John 14:6 that Jesus represents the sole legitimate path to God. Few would suggest that either Testament was verbally and plenarily inspired, that is, the result of God's Holy Spirit directly revealing His words to its authors, as some biblical inerrantists maintain. Many, however, believe that the Bible is God's Word, while remaining open to new understanding of it. While most mainline churches accept the virgin birth of Jesus, few would demand acceptance of that doctrine for membership. There is a general consensus that scripture must both be interpreted through the lens of the cultures in which it was originally written, and examined, like everything else, using God-given reason--and that neither of these methods diminish the importance of scripture or are indications that scripture is not the revelation of God's Word.[2]
[edit] Use of the term mainline
The term mainline may imply a certain numerical majority or dominant presence in mainstream society that is no longer accurate. The ARDA counts 26,344,933 members of mainline churches versus 39,930,8695 members of evangelical protestant churches.[3]
The inclusion of a church in the mainline category does not imply that the beliefs common to mainline churches are held in common by every member of these churches or even every member of their clergy. All of them allow a considerable theological latitude, and each of them contains within it a Confessing Movement or "renewal movement" which is more conservative in tone. Another important fact is that not every church with a name similar to a mainline church should necessarily be deemed to be mainline, although in most instances there are historical ties between such groups. For example, while the American Baptist Churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church USA are considered mainline, the Southern Baptist Convention, Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and the Presbyterian Church in America are too conservative to be regarded as mainline in the sense contemplated here.
[edit] Denominations
The Association of Religion Data Archives considers these denominations to be mainline:[3]
- American Baptist Churches in the USA (1,442,824 members - 2001)[4]
- Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, North American Dioceses (120,000 members - 1989)[5]
- Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Cilicia
- Armenian Apostolic Church / Catholicossate of Etchmiadzin
- Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (804,842 members - 2001)[6]
- Congregational Christian Churches, Additional (not part of any national CCC body)
- Episcopal Church
- Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (5,099,877 members - 2001)[7]
- Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
- International Council of Community Churches (200,263 members - 2000)[8]
- Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- Macedonian Orthodox Church: American Diocese
- Moravian Church in America--Alaska Province (62,256 members - 1965)[9]
- Moravian Church in America--Northern Province (1,555 members - 1972)[10]
- Moravian Church in America--Southern Province
- National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (65,569 members - 2000)[11]
- Netherlands Reformed Congregations (9,395 members - 2001)[12]
- North American Baptist Conference
- Presbyterian Church (USA) (3,455,952 members - 2001)[13]
- Reformed Church in America (285,453 members - 2001)[14]
- United Church of Christ (1,359,105 members - 2001)[15]
- United Methodist Church (8,298,145 members - 2001)[16]
- Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (44,000 members - 1998)[17]
The ARDA has difficulties collecting data on traditionally African American or Black denominations. Those most likely to be identified as mainline include these Methodist groups:
The largest U.S. mainline churches are sometimes referred to as the Seven Sisters of American Protestantism. The term was apparently coined by Hutchison[18] in reference to Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, and Methodists in general between 1900 and 1960.[19]
[edit] References
- ^ The Decline of Mainline Protestantism
- ^ Crossed Fingers: How the liberals captured the Presbyterian church
- ^ a b Mainline protestant denominations
- ^ ABC membership
- ^ ACACoE membership
- ^ DoC membership
- ^ ELCA membership
- ^ ICCC membership
- ^ Moravian - Alaska membership
- ^ Moravian - Northern membership
- ^ NACCC membership
- ^ Dutch Reformed membership
- ^ Presbyterian membership
- ^ Reformed membership
- ^ UCC membership
- ^ UMC membership
- ^ UFMCC membership
- ^ Between the Times: The Travail of the Protestant Establishment in America, 1900-1960 (1989), Cambridge U. Press, ISBN 0-521-40601-3
- ^ Protestant Establishment I (Craigville Conference)
