Mainline Liberal Churches

Van · Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2003 1:37 pm Post subject: Mainline Liberal Churches

Less than 20 million Americans still hold membership in mainline churches. The biggest mainline denominations are the United Methodist Church, with about 9 million members; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with about 5 million members; the Presbyterian Church (USA), with about 2.6 million members; and the Episcopal Church, with about 2.5 million members.
These denominations are more liberal than evangelical denominations, which is to say they think the Bible does not mean what earlier generations thought it meant concerning homosexual activity, women’s role in a Christian marriage and in Church leadership, segregation or the historical accuracy and reliability of the Bible as the Word of God.

There is nothing wrong with being liberal, when that means recognizing what is wrong or false or evil and pointing to a new path that seems more righteous. The problem, of course, is when something good and sound and righteous is attacked and something ill advised is advocated. Liberals have a bad name currently because they advocate Godless government, central command and control over economic issues (similar to the failures of communism) and tolerance for immoral actions such as lying to protect ones own power base a la Clinton or Kerry.

Martin Luther King Jr. was liberal and he helped lead America to the Promised Land where children, regardless of color could be judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin.