What are the different dogmas in the American churches (besides the catholic chruch)?

Question

I'm European and I don't know anything about the different churches in America. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

--is Catholic--

Protestant denominations are way too varied to list completely. Even within families there can be major differences in beliefs to the point that Protestant of denomination Y church on one block will differe in official beliefs from a church of the same Protestant denomination on a different block.

For various "official" beliefs you want to look at
http://www.creeds.net

Here is a picture
http://www.scborromeo.org/images/fig1.gif

You should also know that some Protestant groups are anti-creedal and they have no set dogmatic beliefs.

Answer 2

Watchtower.org as recommended above is Jehovah's Witness propoganda -- proceed at your own risk.

In America we have many of the same churches you have in Europe. One difference is that a much higher percentage of the American population actually has strong belief in what the churches teach and thus goes to church regularly.

We also are experiencing a huge growth of pentecostalism and fundamentalist non-demoninational churches. You can read somewhat unbiased reports about pentecostalism and Christian fundamentalism on Wikipedia.org and get more of a conservative Christian viewpoint at watchman.org (not to be confused with watchtower.org, a cult site that almost makes you think the JWs are above board).

Because of the strength of the more fundamentalist Christian churches (goes way back to our Puritan ancestors, which led to many Americans feeling that America is the new promised land and Americans as God's new chosen people), issues of morality show up much more often in politics on this side of the Atlantic than Europeans would be accustomed to. These "right wing" Christians hold a great deal of power now in the Republican political party, which explains a lot about our foreign policy and issues at home, especially with the supposed moral laxity and permissiveness of the liberals, many of whom support gay marriage and the continued legality of abortion. "Liberal" has successfully become a pejorative term in most places in the U.S.

Interestingly, some of the more liberal churches are also growing, like the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian-Universalist Association. Mainstream Protestant churches -- like Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists -- are losing members either to more liberal or more conservative congregations. Mostly to the more conservative churches.

Our society is polarizing on religious and moral grounds. In some ways it always has been, but what is new is how much power the Right now wields in comparison to a splintered Left. The Right in the U.S. is farther right than the European Right, so much so that we have a sort of religious fascism successfully in command of our country. We are not so different from Iran afterall.

Granted, my opinion is not bias-free, but hopefully will give you a place to start from so you can find the answers you were looking for.

Answer 3

There are many different religions in America, to add to the confusion, what is considered Baptist in one region may be fairly different in another area.

Personally, I am fairly anit-religion as I think in many ways, religion has lost it's way from Christianity (and possibly other faiths).

If you are looking for a particular church, my suggestion to you would be to find some churches that are in your area and research them on the web. Many have their beliefs listed so you can find a church that best fits your spiritual walk and hopefully by finding out a little about them before you actually attend, you will cut down the number of weekends you have to spend searching for the right place.

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

I'll tell you one thing about Christian denominations. Their members will all tell you that belief in Christ is all that's important... but then will proceed to try and convince you that THEIR church is still the one most in keeping with the bible and it is the one that you should be attending if you have the opportunity.

And to give you a little info; I grew up a Seventh-Day Adventist (don't even remotely believe in it now). The biggest things that set it apart are:
-Go to church on Saturday
-There is no hell
-The dead don't go to heaven until they are raised up again at the 2nd coming
-No alcohol, drugs, dancing, movies, tobacco, or pork (unclean meat)
-There is no rapture
-The Catholic church is the Beast of Revelation
-Satan is the antichrist, not some human yet to be born.

Answer 5

Well basically you have the biblical protestants(baptist, methodist, lutherans) who have very traditional services and make up most of the churches, you have the evangelical independent churchs which are very nontraditional and preach a very simplistic form of Christianity with a lot of dancing and music and a touch of new age pizazz, and then you got groups outside of mainstream protestantism with some some bible based beliefs and some supplemented beleifs like the mornoms and jahovahs witnesses

Answer 6

There's pretty much everything under the sun. There's Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, Liberal, Holiness, Reformed, Fundamental, Charismatic/Pentecostal, and everything in between.

Answer 7

Grace unto you and peace,
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Beware of dogs (Philippians 3:2), also of lawyers and evil(law) workers of American cruches, and of their dogmas (the leaven). A dog is mirrorly the reverse of god, and a dog re-turns to his vomit: law (2Peter 2: 22). And a little leaven(law) leaveneth the whole lump; just like a little cancer us law kills the whole body, including the head of the body: Christ(the end of the law).

Our Father, deliver us from evil.
We are delivered from the law.

Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
The law is not of faith.

POINT: it's "foolish" to re-turn back to law(perdition) behind you when delivered from the law, for the stated result in Mt 12:45 is a latter end "worse", as "seven spirits" mentioned in the Revelation(Uncovering) of John, who "turned", back to law, "behind" him. So then Revelation is written as a "worse" case scenario to "avoid".

The "grace" of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 8

The list has grown too long and is irrelivant to our relationship with God.

Answer 9

This one place has a web site and it answers all your bible questions and everyone uses it.
www.watchtower.org just click in there and you will find your answer. Got it off answers.

Answer 10

That question would require volumes to cover... I invite you to my website for my pov. here is a direct link to my All Different Flavors page.

http://pages.zdnet.com/mikevanauken/mikesinternetoutreach/id24.html

All honest seekers welcome