Most-liked Christian denomination (testimony, reject, Jehovah, homosexuals, disciples)

[Polaris]

If you were to affiliate with a Christian denomiation (other than your own if you're already Christian) which of the following would you choose? If you feel inclined, we'd like to hear why?

Baptist
Christian Scientist
Disciples of Christ
Eastern Orthodox
Episcopal
Jehovah's Witness
Lutheran
Methodist
Mormon (LDS)
Presbyterian
Roman Catholic
Seventh-Day Adventist
Unitarian Christian
United Church of Christ
Other (please name)

[Ab'dal Hameed]

I have voted "other" meaning the Quakers, whose official name I forget. I love their peaceful way of worship.

[MidnightBlue]

I picked United Church of Christ because I almost did join them. Going UCC was going to be my last-ditch attempt to remain a Christian. However, I decided against it.

As you probably guessed from our conversation on another thread, I have a general preference for the Eastern Orthodox Churches. However, I can't abide their attitude toward women and homosexuals, or their rejection of pacifism.

Any religious group I joined would have to have a strong testimony for peace, justice, and non-violence, would have to be welcoming to all people, and would have to treat women and men equally, and all sexual orientations and gender identities equally. That means:

• If they have officers or clergy, those positions have to be open to both sexes, and people of any sexual orientation or gender identity.
• If they celebrate weddings, the option has to be open to same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples.
• The particular congregation will not sponsor exclusionary organizations like the Boy Scouts -- and I'd feel better if there were a denominational policy against it.
• The members will be involved in peace and justice issues (like counter-recruitment and environmental activism), and the congregation will help serve as a clearinghouse for involvement in those activities.
• The congregation will have a strong social conscience, and members will be involved in helping to feed, cloth, and house the poor, and helping them get medical care.
• Neither the congregation nor the denomination will glorify the military or any form of violence.
• There will not be any dogmatic requirements for membership -- no saying, "You must believe this."
• There will not be an emphasis on building programs and acquiring "stuff" for the congregation.

That's my wish list, anyway, an idealization. I don't expect any congregation on the ground to fit the bill exactly, but it would have to come close. I'm not aware of any Christian church that comes anywhere near close. In the UCC, you find individual congregations that do, but there's no denomination-wide policy for peace, justice and non-violence, or against exclusionary practices. I like the way they're headed, but I just don't think it's good enough.

So I'm more attracted to the post-Christian religions, like the Unitarian-Universalists and Friends General Conference. I've always had a strong preference for liturgical forms of worship, but I've learned that I like "silent meeting" or "unprogrammed" Quaker worship even better. However, I wouldn't touch the Evangelical Friends with a ten-foot pole. I consider their exclusionary practices and their commitment to dogma contrary to everything I like about Quakerism -- liberal Quakerism, that is, and their ordained clergy and programmed meetings an abandonment of important Quaker principles -- important to me, that is.

On a gut level, I like Eastern Orthodoxy and paganism, especially Norse heathenism, but I've already explained my reservations about Orthodoxy, and it just seems like more trouble than it's worth to spend the rest of my life explaining to Christians that I'm a pagan but don't believe the gods are factual.

It's looking like liberal Quakerism, philosophical Taoism, or no religion for me. At the moment I don't belong to any religion, but those are the options most attractive to me.

[kai]

i like the amish forgive my ignorance if they are there in the list under another name

[FerventGodSeeker]

Originally Posted by Ab'dal Hameed

I have voted "other" meaning the Quakers, whose official name I forget. I love their peaceful way of worship.

I think modern-day Quakers are now usually called "Friends"; there is a Friends Church near where I live.

FGS

[Elvendon]

Damn, I didn't read the "other than your own" bit. Oh well, other than Anglican, I'd say Eastern Orthodox or Friends.

[Scarlett Wampus]

Roman Catholicism because of the Jesuits, Cathod, Pax Christi and characters like Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day and Desmond Tutu. Also, the least pretentious meditation group I've ever been to was ran by a small Catholic church.

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by Scarlett Wampus

Roman Catholicism because of the Jesuits, Cathod, Pax Christi and characters like Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day and Desmond Tutu. Also, the least pretentious meditation group I've ever been to was ran by a small Catholic church.

Hey SW, Archbishop Tutu is Anglican. But I agree with you, if not Episcopalian I'd go for either RCC or EOC.

cheers,
lunamoth

[Revasser]

I tend to get on really well with Anglicans, here in Australia at least.

If I was going to be a Christian, I'd probably join a very liberal Anglican congregation of some kind.

So, from the choices listed, I picked Episcopal.