Do mainline Protestants have more in common with fundamentaists or with Roman Catholi
By mainline Protestants, I mean Lutherans, Episcopals, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc.
@Messenger of God:
I'm confused by your remark that "Fundamentalist Protestants were founded upon Liberalism". I understand that you're using "liberal" in the sense of contrasting it to traditionalist, but fundamentalists call themselves conservative theologically, which they distinguish from being liberal theologically, which involves making use of the critical-historical method to understand the Bible instead of trying to take it literally and as inerrant.
So fundamentalists see liberalism as their enemy. But I suppose that what you're presenting is a Catholic take on things. Since mainline Protestants clearly lie between Catholicism and fundamentalist Protestants in many ways, I guess there's something to be said for this way of looking at things.
@Anonymous Lutheran:
If the term "mainline Protestant" is to have any useful meaning, it should function as a contrastive term to "fundamentalist Protestant". A central tenet of fundamentalism is Biblical inerrant. Since both LCMS and WELS subscribe to Biblical inerrant, they cannot be considered to be mainline for that reason. (Indeed, it is questionable whether it even makes sense to consider these denominations Lutheran, since Luther's method of Biblical interpretation blatantly contradicts the idea of Biblical inerrant, but that's another matter.) Since LCMS and WELS have enough in common with Lutheranism to avoid being seduced by dispensations parallelisAiliser, they don't fall under fundamentalism very well, either. Thus, they are somewhat strange in that they are Protestant but neither mainline nor fundamentalist.
According to Wikipedia (article "Mainline Protestant"), ELCA is the second largest mainline denomination . It derives from Germans and Scandinavians.
"Mainline" also has connotations of "mainstream". ELCA is a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which comprises 95% of the world's Lutherans. LCMS and WELS are not members of the LWF. (In 1999 the LWF reached an agreement with the Roman Catholic Church, The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.)
Well the fun dies came from the protestants,and mainline protestants are not as popular as they used to be.That being said,I would still have to say the MPs are closer to the RCs,only because they are more forgiving,and charitable in their overall ways.They all have similarities,but the fun dies are in a world of their own.ADD;Mainline denominations peaked in membership in the 1950s and have declined steadily in the last half century. From 1960 to 1988, mainline church membership declined from 31 million to 25 million, then fell to 21 million in 2005.[6][7] Today, they are a minority among American Protestants, claiming approximately 15 percent of American adults among their adherents.[8]
I would say Mainline Protestants depending on the denomination may be more or less in communion with Catholic Traditions. For example the Anglicans has an apostolic succession and even Sacraments though some of them are not recognized by the Catholic Church. Anglicans also have a Sacrament of Penance where they do offer private confessions, but Anglicans also allow inward confessions which is not part of the Catholic Tradition. The Lutherans have no apostolic succession, but they do have Sacraments though some of them are not recognized by the Catholic Church. If you were to classify a Mainline Protestant they would have to be considered Moderate Traditionalists. Now Fundamentalist Protestants were founded upon Liberalism and are very different from the Mainline Protestants. It's interesting that Baptist consider themselves very Conservative, but their doctrines are very Liberal and fare removed from Tradition.
"Mainline Protestant" is too vague a term, and may not even be an accurate term for what you're trying to ask.
"Mainline Protestant" means a western non-Catholic denomination brought to the United States by immigrants. It includes liberal bodies like the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church, as well as conservative bodies such as the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Free Church in America. It also includes church bodies that are off in their own world such as the Salvation Army.
Some denominations often thought of as "mainline" are actually not mainline, but were founded by Americans. Two examples would be the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, and the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The point I'm trying to make is that calling a denomination "mainline" doesn't really say anything about its theology, and so there's no good way to answer your question directly.
Of the mainline denominations, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) are the most similar to Catholicism. The Evangelical Free Church (EFCA) isn't really very much like Fundamentalism, but it's closer to that than to Catholicism.
Of the denominations that are not technically mainline, the Anglican Church in North America would be most like the Catholics.
Do mainline Protestants have more in common with fundamentaists or with Roman Catholi
