Mainline Protestant

for other uses see Mainline (disambiguation)

The mainline (also sometimes called mainstream) or mainline Protestant denominations are those Protestant denominations that were brought to the United States by America's historic immigrant groups, for this reason they are sometimes referred to as heritage churches. The largest are the Episcopal (English), Presbyterian (Scottish), Methodist (English), and Lutheran (German and Scandinavian) churches. All of the mainline churches have experienced steep declines in membership in recent decades.

They tend to be open to new ideas and societal changes without abandoning what they consider to be the historical basis of the Christian faith. This places them to the left of the evangelical churches. They have been increasingly open to the ordination of women. They have been far from uniform in their reaction to homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals, though less dogmatic on these issues than either the Roman Catholic Church or the more conservative Protestant churches. Mainline churches take no set view with regard to military service — all provide chaplains to the United States armed forces and none are historically peace churches except the Church of the Brethren — but express reservations about aggressive use of military force for any reason.

Mainline churches tend to belong to organizations such as the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.

Beliefs

Many or most mainline denominations teach that the Bible is God's word in function, but also remain open to new understandings of it. Few would suggest that the Bible was verbally and plenarily inspired as some biblical inerrantists maintain.

Most mainline denominations do not expect strict acceptance of everything written about or spoken by Jesus in the New Testament. Most are Trinitarian, however, meaning they accept and/or require belief in the doctrine that God exists as one "essence" in three "persons": the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.

Theologically traditional 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."

Use of the term mainline

While the term mainline may seem to imply a certain numerical majority or dominant presence in mainstream society that is no longer accurate, it actually originated from the Pennsylvania Main Line, a wealthy suburban area near Philadelphia known for its elite White Anglo-Saxon Protestant population. The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) counts 26,344,933 members of mainline churches versus 39,930,869 members of evangelical Protestant churches. There is evidence that there has been a shift in membership from mainline denominations to other churches.

The inclusion of a denomination in the mainline category does not imply that every member of that denomination, nor even every member of their clergy, accepts some of the beliefs generally held in common by other mainline churches. They allow considerable theological latitude. Moreover, mainline denominations have within them Confessing Movements or charismatic renewal movements which are more conservative in tone.

Some denominations with similar names, and historical ties to mainline groups are not considered mainline. For example, while the American Baptist Churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) are mainline, the Southern Baptist Convention, Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and the Presbyterian Church in America are often considered too conservative for this category, and thus grouped as Evangelical.

Mainline denominations

The largest U.S. mainline churches are sometimes referred to as the Seven Sisters of American Protestantism.* The term was apparently coined by William Hutchison in reference to the major liberal groups of American Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Congregationalists / United Church of Christ, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians during the period between 1900 and 1960.

• United Methodist Church 8,070,000 members (2006)
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 4,850,000 members (2007)
• Episcopal Church in the United States of America 2,369,477 members
• Presbyterian Church (USA) 2,300,000 members (2007)
• American Baptist Churches in the USA 1,442,824 members (2001)
• United Church of Christ 1,359,105 members (2001)
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 804,842 members (2001)

The Association of Religion Data Archives also considers these denominations to be mainline:

• Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 350,000 members
• Reformed Church in America 285,453 members (2001)
• International Council of Community Churches 200,263 members (2000)
• National Association of Congregational Christian Churches 65,569 members (2000)
• North American Baptist Conference 64,565 members (2002)
• Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches 44,000 members (1998)
• Moravian Church in America, Northern Province 24,650 members (2003)
• Moravian Church in America, Southern Province 21,513 members (1991)
• Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 12,000 members (2007)
• Congregational Christian Churches, (not part of any national CCC body)
• Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
• Moravian Church in America, Alaska Province

The Association of Religion Data Archives has difficulties collecting data on traditionally African American denominations. Those churches most likely to be identified as mainline include these Methodist groups:

• African Methodist Episcopal Church
• Christian Methodist Episcopal Church