It’s not uncommon for a fiscal conservative to come out liberal in religion, especially people who swing closer to libertarianism. The same things that swing someone towards conservatism or libertarianism in politics have the tendency to swing you towards liberalism in religion.

If you don’t trust government as a big authority figure and your view of God is mostly as an authority figure, you’ll be a political conservative and a religious liberal.

We are also a liturgical church, since we have a std set of rituals/prayers/etc… for public worship. See the Book of Common Prayer for details.

More info on the Anglican Church can be found at Anglicans Online.

Since Baha’i is (by Islamic terminology) a radical heretical sect of 12ver Islam (which isn’t all that bad a description,) basically, any brush you paint Islam with, you catch us too.

Someday, if we had a chance, I would love to hear you discuss salvation and grace. I suspect we would have interesting overlaps and digressions.

Rick

But painting with a broad brush that says all Roman Catholics worship Mary and other saints as near-gods is incorrect. That’s not what the church body as a whole teaches, and it’s not what most of the Roman Catholics I know believe and practice.

And Murel, don’t forget Eastern Orthodox, which isn’t Protestant but definitely isn’t Roman Catholic. The Episcopals are like Lutherans in that they don’t fit neatly into the Protestant mold either.

And, yes, both the Lutheran Missouri and Wisconsin synods fall to the far right on any scale. I’m a flaming liberal in either of those camps, but put me in an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America setting, and I’m a flaming conservative.

And David, you’re right, Unitarian Universalism is very liberal and vague, which is what happens when you start with a notion that any belief system is true.

Roman Catholic – Reading the various pamphlets given out at some Catholic churches and schools about Mary and different saints has led me to a queasy feeling that some Catholics ascribe certain more than human “powers” to different saints and to Mary. In the case of the saints and the variety of powers that some Catholics truly believe the Saints can influence (or intercede with God for the supplicant, who essentially worships an image of the saint and is praying to the saint, not to God)- Is this not essentially the same as a pantheon of gods and demi-gods? If so, how can this be Christianity and how is this truly different from many aspects of ancient Greek and Roman belief?

If someone knows about this, I’d like their thoughts.

I’ve seen a traveling shrine to Mary in
a local Catholic school as well the the children’s reaction to it (and statments about the powers of Mary) that sure make me think of “heathen” belief, not of Christianity.

The odd one for me was a sorta high score on Unitarian Universalism. While I’ve met many fine Unitarians, the denomination doesn’t appeal to me. Too vague and full of politically-correct “Liberalism” as far as I can tell…