This question is mostly for my own curiosity and for anybody else trying to learn a little about the demographic make up of the forum.

The poll is anonymous. Nobody can identify who voted.

I'd identify as Protestant, although I'm honestly thinking of converting to Eastern Orthodoxy (there's a beautiful EO church near me). Ask me in a years time, it may be completely different.

Also, 'fundamentalist' isn't a denomination. You'll get fundamentalist Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants.

Originally Posted by Supreme

I'd identify as Protestant, although I'm honestly thinking of converting to Eastern Orthodoxy (there's a beautiful EO church near me). Ask me in a years time, it may be completely different.

Also, 'fundamentalist' isn't a denomination. You'll get fundamentalist Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants.

Thank you. I will remove that choice

My father was a Roman Catholic and my mother converted to Protestantism. After they married, my father adopted more Protestant views...I attended a Catholic High School.

For the purposes of your poll I checked Protestant. Though this past Sunday I am sure I shocked some of my own congregation's members when I informed them that we United Methodists actually are technically NOT protestants.

Protestant refers to those who come from the traditions that protested against the "alleged" problems of the Catholic Church and insisted on some type of reform. Since it didn't happen from within (or at least not fast enough to suit these protesting reformers), then they continued to do develop their own reform from outside the Catholic Church. Hence the name given to that era of the Protestant Reformation. It was a theological discourse turned into a revolution. Some of the major groups coming out of that tradition are: Lutheran, Presbyterian, Christian Reformed, Moravian, Mennonite, Amish, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Congregational Churches, United Church of Christ and of course the Pilgrims and the Puritans a few centuries back.

My Methodist heritage is traced back through John Wesley who was a leader of the Methodist societies, which was actually a movement within the Church of England. Wesley, the "Father" of Methodism was to his dying day an Anglican priest. And those who know there western Europeam history know that the origin of the Anglican Church had nothing to do with the protestant reformation, but King Henry VIII's desire to get a divorce or annulment from his wife and the refusal of the Pope to grant it. So, acting as King, Henry merely ordered all those who would not cede to his authority over the Church in England back to Rome and the Church in England became the Church of England. And that is why we Methodists (and Anglicans and Episcopalians) are technically not Protestants.

However, though the motivation for the split was purely political from Henry's point of view. The reality is that in time the character of these churches began to reflect many of the view of the protestant reformers on the continent. So, in the US at least, we typically don't make a big deal out of it and just go along with the crowd that labels us Protestants. It's only on occassions like this that I like to educate people to look beyond the easily slapped on categories.

Greetings and peace be with you Mr. Curiosity Woodrow;

I did one of those internet tests, to see which religion my views are closest too, apparently I am a Lutheran, by my beliefs.

Having said that I am a Catholic, and this seems to be a place, I feel most troubled by at times. Being troubled, continuously seems to push me to do things, outside of my comfort zone

In the spirit of praying to the One God who hears all our prayers

Eric

Didn't see it up there, but I'm Pentacostal.

Roman Catholic.

Woodrow, I've never seen a breakdown of LI's membership, maybe as an administrator you have access to some of that information that others of us would not. If so, I would be interested knowing how many Christians (both real numbers and as a percent) are there on the board? How diverse is LI with respect to involvment from around the world?

Originally Posted by Grace Seeker

Woodrow, I've never seen a breakdown of LI's membership, maybe as an administrator you have access to some of that information that others of us would not. If so, I would be interested knowing how many Christians (both real numbers and as a percent) are there on the board? How diverse is LI with respect to involvment from around the world?

The way of life is not kept track of in anyway. I can only give a guess based on what I see and this will be based ont the 100 or so frequent posters. But I think a fair guess is 50% Muslim 30% Christian 15% other 5% Undisclosed, Agnostic or Atheist

Again that is simply a guess based on one person's observations of the most frequent posters, not the entire membership