Talk:Protestantism in the United States

Mainline vs. Evangelical

The table "Mainline vs. Evangelical" seems to be Original research. If some justifying sources can't be found soon, I'll be removing it. Editor2020 (talk) 00:11, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, I think a lot of churches in the ACNA, for example, would strongly object to being called evangelical. Also, Methodism is a glaring omission from the summaries of major denominations, considering it's the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. after Baptists. I disagree that the section on Black churches was off-topic, though. Angr (talk) 16:29, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Another issue with the table is that the numbers for the Methodists are off, as there are over 9 million members. (Morane12 (talk) 21:00, 4 July 2013 (UTC))

The term 'mainline Protestant' is widely used, even if some editors have not yet familiarized themselves with its prevalent usage.MaynardClark (talk) 12:16, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

Category:Anti-Catholicism in the United States

Is it appropriate for this page to be in Category:Anti-Catholicism in the United States? They are not the same thing, of course, though there would be overlap. Not all anti-Catholics are Protestant, and not all Protestants are anti-Catholic. StAnselm (talk) 05:15, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

• Not appropriate. Protestants may have theological differences with Catholics, but that doesn't make them Anti-Catholic (they generally have no "hostility towards Catholicism" and do not engage in "ending religious services and seizure of church lands"). Indeed, several Protestant groups are in dialogue with the Catholic Church. See Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue and Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, for example. -- 101.119.15.2 (talk) 08:23, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

Is Protestantism theologically opposed to Catholicism?

I think that goes without saying. But I've been asked to discuss the matter[1] by an editor who doesn't believe theological opposition to Catholicism exists in real life. Long live concern trolling, but if Protestantism isn't opposed to Catholicism, I will eat my hat. -- Kendrick7^talk 05:22, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

I've known a lot of Protestants, and I wouldn't describe any of them as anti-catholic. You're misunderstanding the use of categories Kendrick. While a see-also may be appropriate here, a subset relationship is not.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 06:06, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

• Protestants may have theological differences with Catholics, but that doesn't make them Anti-Catholic (they generally have no "hostility towards Catholicism" and do not engage in "ending religious services and seizure of church lands"). Indeed, several Protestant groups are in dialogue with the Catholic Church. See Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue and Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, for example. Consensus is quite clearly against your proposed categorisation. And allegations of concern trolling breach WP:AGF and WP:CIVIL. -- 101.119.15.2 (talk) 08:21, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

Restorationism

Restorationism, and in particular denominations that are part of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement and the Latter Day Saint movement in the United States are not considered Protestant, any more than the Eastern Orthodox Church is. -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 17:04, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Superfluous information in introduction

The introduction contains this paragraph

According of Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States by Harriet Zuckerman, a review of American Nobel prizes winners awarded between 1901 and 1972, 72% of American Nobel Prize Laureates, have identified from Protestant background.[1] Overall, 84.2% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded to Americans in Chemistry,[1] 60% in Medicine,[1] and 58.6% in Physics[1] between 1901 and 1972 were won by Protestants.

which, while interesting, does not really seem important enough to include in the introduction. The same could be said of the paragraph that follows:

Some of the first colleges and universities in America, including Harvard,[2] Yale,[3] Princeton,[4] Columbia,[5] Dartmouth, Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Amherst, all were founded by the Protestant, as were later Carleton, Duke,[6] Oberlin, Beloit, Pomona, Rollins and Colorado College.

These could maybe be placed into a section related to the influence of protestantism on education or something similar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 154.70.55.1 (talk) 11:44, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

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Editorially lopsided treatment in "Mainline vs. Evangelical" section

I have added an "Unbalanced Section" template to the Mainline vs. evangelical section because I believe that the material presented from the Evangelical viewpoint far outweighs the material presented from the Mainline viewpoint. The section begins with

Theologically conservative critics accuse the mainline churches of "the substitution of leftist social action for Christian evangelizing, and the disappearance of biblical theology," and maintain that "All the Mainline churches have become essentially the same church: their histories, their theologies, and even much of their practice lost to a uniform vision of social progress."

and there is no counter-balancing view from the Mainline viewpoint at all. Then, in the Evangelicalism subsection, there is this extremely long bombardment of "they believe"/"they charge" etc. with no counterbalance; added bold for emphasis:

Evangelicals held the view that the modernist and liberal parties in the Protestant churches had surrendered their heritage as evangelicals by accommodating the views and values of the world. At the same time, they criticized their fellow fundamentalists for their separatism and their rejection of the Social Gospel as it had been developed by Protestant activists of the previous century. They charged the modernists with having lost their identity as evangelicals and the fundamentalists with having lost the Christ-like heart of evangelicalism. They argued that the Gospel needed to be reasserted to distinguish it from the innovations of the liberals and the fundamentalists. They sought allies in denominational churches and liturgical traditions, disregarding views of eschatology and other "non-essentials," and joined also with Trinitarian varieties of Pentecostalism. They believed that in doing so, they were simply re-acquainting Protestantism with its own recent tradition.

This kind of lopsidedness is not present in the Mainline subsection. The total lopsidedness of treatment here, in my view, causes Wikipedia to, editorially, favor the Evangelical viewpoint over the Mainline one in this section. Unless someone comes up with a better idea, I favor just getting rid of the endless "they they they they" section. It also has no citation, so it probably deserves deletion on that grounds alone. BirdValiant (talk) 01:26, 20 November 2021 (UTC)