Mainline Protestant (also sometimes called "mainstream American Protestant"[1]) are certain Protestant churches in the United States that comprised a majority of Americans from the colonial era until the early 20th century. The group is contrasted with evangelical and fundamentalist groups. They include Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, northern Baptists, most Lutherans, and most Presbyterians, as well as some smaller denominations.
Members of mainline denominations have played leadership roles in all aspects of American life, including politics, business, education, science and the arts. In recent years, however, the mainline groups have shrunken as a percentage of the American population, as increasing numbers of American Protestants have come to affiliate instead with fundamentalist or evangelical churches. Politically and theologically, contemporary mainline Protestants tend to be more liberal than non-mainline believers.
Mainline churches include the United Methodist Church (UMC), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (PCUSA), the Episcopal Church, the American Baptist Churches, the United Church of Christ (Congregationalist), the Disciples of Christ, and the Reformed Church in America. These churches share a common approach to social issues that often leads to collaboration in organizations such as the National Council of Churches.[2]
As a group, the mainline churches have maintained religious doctrine that stresses social justice and personal salvation.[3] They were leaders of the Social Gospel and were active in social causes such as civil rights, and equality for women.[4] In addition, mainline churches and laity founded most of the leading educational institutes in the US.[5]
Mainline denominations peaked in membership in the 1950s and have declined steadily in the last half century. From 1960 to 1988, mainline church membership declined from 31 million to 25 million, then fell to 21 million in 2005.[6][7] Today, they are a minority among American Protestants, claiming approximately 15 percent of American adults among their adherents.[8]
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The term "mainstream Christian" in academic usage is not equivalent to "mainline Protestant" and is often used as an attempt to find non-loaded sociological vocabulary in distinguishing "orthodoxy" and "heresy."[9] Hence in christological and doctrinal reference "mainstream Christianity" is often equivalent to "Trinitarianism." In Britain and Australia the term "mainline Protestant" is not used, and "mainstream" does not mean "liberal" Protestant.
In America the term "mainline religion" had simply meant white Protestant into the early years of the twentieth century.[10] [11] The term "Mainline Protestant" was coined during debates between modernists and fundamentalists in the 1920s.[12] Several sources claim that the term is derived from the Philadelphia Main Line, a group of affluent inner suburbs of Philadelphia that were settled along the Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line, and that most residents of these suburbs belonged to mainline denominations, though this may be a folk etymology.[13] Today, most mainline Protestants remain rooted in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. Lippy (2006) [14] defines the term as follows: "the term "mainline Protestant" is used along with "mainstream Protestant" and "old-line Protestant" to categorize denominations that are affiliated with the National Council of Churches and have deep historic roots in and long-standing influence on American society."
The largest U.S. mainline churches are sometimes referred to as the Seven Sisters of American Protestantism.[15] The term was apparently coined by William Hutchison.[16]
The Association of Religion Data Archives also considers these denominations to be mainline:[18]
The Association of Religion Data Archives has difficulties collecting data on traditionally African American denominations. Those churches most likely to be identified as mainline include these Methodist groups:
Some denominations with similar names and historical ties to mainline groups are not considered mainline. The Southern Baptist Convention, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, the Churches of Christ, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) are often considered too conservative for this category and thus grouped as evangelical.
The anti-slavery debates in the antebellum United States sparked a turning point in American theology from which mainline theology emerged. The issue of slavery forced antislavery theologians, including William Ellery Channing, Francis Wayland, and Horace Bushnell, to reconcile their contradictory loyalties to the Bible and to antislavery reform. Unable to use the letter of the Bible to make a scriptural case against slavery in itself, the moderates argued that although slavery had been acceptable in biblical times, it had become a sin. Antislavery Protestantism required a theory of moral progress, a deeply unorthodox idea that became fundamental to the development of late-19th-century liberal Evangelical Protestantism. The antislavery argument from moral progress, along with the moral progress represented by abolition, established a progressive conception of revelation that was further developed by late-19th-century liberal theologians, including Newman Smyth, Lyman Abbott, and Theodore Munger. Once they had adopted the idea that moral values evolve, it was not hard to come to terms with the impact of modernity, critical biblical scholarship, and Darwinism.[25]
Mainline theology tends to be open to new ideas, new understandings of morality, and societal changes without abandoning what they consider to be the historical foundations of the Christian faith. For example, they have been increasingly open to the ordination of women.
They hold a wide range of theologies—conservative, moderate and liberal. While about half of mainline Protestants label themselves as liberal, nearly one-third call themselves conservative. Most local mainline congregations have a strong, active conservative element.[26]
Mainline theology tends to be moderate and influenced by higher criticism, an approach used by scholars to separate the Bible's earliest historical elements from later additions and even intentional distortions. Mainline denominations generally teach that the Bible is God's Word in function, but that it must be interpreted both through the lens of the cultures in which it was originally written, and examined using God-given reason. Mainline Christian groups are often more accepting of other beliefs and faiths.[26] These church bodies are often comparatively more comfortable with gender inclusive language in contemporary translations of the Bible.
A 2008 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that only 22 percent of the 7,500 mainline Christians surveyed said the Bible is God's Word and is to be interpreted as literally true, word for word. Thirty-eight percent thought that the Bible is God's Word but is not to be taken literally, word for word. Twenty-eight percent said the Bible was not the Word of God but was of human origin.[27]
Theologically, mainline denominations are historically Trinitarian and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Son of God; they adhere to the historic creeds such as the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.
The inclusion of a denomination in the mainline Protestant category does not imply that every member of that denomination, nor even every member of their clergy, accepts some of the beliefs generally held in common by other mainline churches. They allow considerable theological latitude. Moreover, mainline denominations have within them Confessing Movements or charismatic renewal movements which are more conservative in tone.
The mainline denominations emphasize the biblical concept of justice, stressing the need for Christians to work for social justice, which usually involve politically liberal approaches to social and economic problems. Early in the 20th century, they actively supported the Social Gospel.
Mainline churches were basically pacifistic before 1940, but under the influence of realists such as Reinhold Niebuhr they supported World War II and the Cold War.[28] They have been far from uniform in their reaction to homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals, though generally more accepting than the Catholic Church or the more conservative Protestant churches.[29]
Protestant churches as a whole have held steady in total membership in the last half century, but since the national population has grown they have shrunk from 63% of the population in 1970 to 54% by 2000. The Mainline denominations comprised 55% of all Protestants in 1973, and 46% in 1998.[30]
While the term "mainline" once implied a certain numerical majority or dominant presence in mainstream society, that is no longer the case. Both evangelical and fundamentalist Christian groups have been growing, but mainline Christianity—both membership and worship attendance—has been shrinking.[3]
The number of mainline congregations in the U. S. declined from more than 80,000 churches in the 1950s to about 72,000 in 2008.[8] About 40% of Mainline Protestants in the 1990s were active in church affairs, compared to 46% of the conservatives.[31]
Various causes have been cited, including monotonous and ponderous liturgies, intimidating worship surroundings, and too much tradition.[32] Behaviorally, only one-third (31 percent) of mainline adults believe they have a personal responsibility to discuss their faith with people who have different beliefs. Tenure of pastors in mainline churches tends to be somewhat brief. On average, these pastors last four years before moving to another congregation. That is about half the average among Protestant pastors in non-mainline churches.[8]
Demographers have examined the statistical basis of the long-term decline in the mainstream membership versus the growth in the conservative denominations.[33]
There are four basic factors: birth rates; switching between denominations; departure from Protestantism; and conversions from non-Protestant sources. By far the main cause is birth rates—low for the mainline bodies, and high for the conservatives. The second most important factor is that fewer conservatives switch to mainline denominations than before. Secularization (moving to "no religion") is a third factor.
Despite speculation to the contrary, switching from a mainline to a conservative denomination is not important in accounting for the trend, because it is fairly constant over the decades. Finally, conservative denominations have had a greater inflow of converts.[33]
Evidence from the General Social Survey indicates that higher fertility and earlier childbearing among women from conservative denominations explains 76% of the observed trend: conservative denominations have grown their own. Mainline denomination members have the lowest birthrate among American Christian groups. Unless there is a surge of new members, rising death rates are predicted to diminish their ranks even further in the years ahead.[26]
Statistical analysis gives no support for the notion that theological or social conservatism or liberalism has much impact on long-term growth trends.[34]
Mainline churches have had difficulty attracting minorities, particularly Hispanics and Asians. Hispanics comprise 6 percent of the mainline population but 16 percent of the US population. The Barna Group considers the failure of mainline Protestants to add substantial numbers of Hispanics to be portent for the future, given both the rapid increase of the Hispanic population as well as the outflow of Hispanics from Catholicism to Protestant churches in the past decade, most of whom are selecting evangelical or Pentecostal Protestant churches.[8] Asians represent 4 percent of the American public, but only half that proportion among mainline congregants.[8]
Some other findings of the Barna Group:
Recent statistics from the Pew Forum provide additional explanations for the decline.
Not paralleling the decline in membership is the household income of members of mainline denominations. Overall, it is higher than that of evangelicals:
Protestantism's hundreds of different denominations are loosely grouped according to three fairly distinct religious traditions—evangelical Protestant churches (26.3 percent of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1 percent) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9 percent).[35]
The Association of Religion Data Archives ARDA counts 26,344,933 members of mainline churches versus 39,930,869 members of evangelical Protestant churches.[18]