Christian denomination quiz

[lak611]

From what I’ve seen from the posts in this thread, it would seem that the LCMS should be a bit larger than it is…maybe some of you Catholics need to convert to LCMS.

Interestingly enough, my family members who are not Catholic are LCMS. Nobody converted from Catholic to Lutheran or from Lutheran to Catholic. Everybody in my family, except for one person, is either cradle Catholic or cradle Lutheran. The only convert in my family was a non-Christian who became Catholic.

 

[lak611]

#1 Liberal Quakerism
#2 Unitarian Universalism
#3 Unity Church
#4 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#5 Mennonite Brethren

…

#20 Presbyterian Church in America/Orthodox Presbyterian Church
#21 Reformed Baptist
#22 Reformed Churches
#23 United Pentecostal Church
#24 Roman Catholic Church

Have to admit I’m not at all surprised at either the top or bottom two.

I’m just surprised that Eastern Orthodox is not near the bottom if Catholic is.

 

[Mirdath]

I’m just surprised that Eastern Orthodox is not near the bottom if Catholic is.

I suspect it might have shown up at #25.

 

[KarenNC]

I’m just surprised that Eastern Orthodox is not near the bottom if Catholic is.

Interestingly, my husband took the quiz last night—we were similar in top and bottom, including where RC fell, though his Eastern Orthodox came out at around 13 while mine was 20 (he is also an Hellenic polytheist UU, btw). Not sure why, I would have expected them to be closer as well. May have to do with the relative weight one gave the answers chosen.

 

[Nepenthe]

I got exactly the same top five as Mirdath, even the order. What a surprise.

Bottom five were Roman Catholic, Reformed Baptist, Reformed Churches, Presbyterian and United Pentecostal.

Huh, pretty close there too.

 

[Mommyof02green]

I fw the link to a friend of mine.

Her top 4 were:
#1 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#2 Evangelical Lutheran Church
#3 Eastern Orthodox Church
#4 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Number 7 for my friend was Roman Catholic.

Weird
My friend didn’t know what to make of it…

 

[KarenNC]

I fw the link to a friend of mine.

Her top 4 were:
#1 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#2 Evangelical Lutheran Church
#3 Eastern Orthodox Church
#4 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Number 7 for my friend was Roman Catholic.

Weird
My friend didn’t know what to make of it…

If s/he is RC or thinks s/he should have scored that as hightes, tell your friend to be sure that s/he also marked the bar beneath each question on how important this is to you–high, med or low (they are all at medium as a default). I didn’t do it the first time, then did it the second and it altered the order of the listing for me at least a bit.

 

[Mommyof02green]

If s/he is RC or thinks s/he should have scored that as hightes, tell your friend to be sure that s/he also marked the bar beneath each question on how important this is to you–high, med or low (they are all at medium as a default). I didn’t do it the first time, then did it the second and it altered the order of the listing for me at least a bit.

Thanks for the tip…

She doesn’t belong to any church, per se. Her family stop going to church when she was young. She’s been “searching” for somewhere to belong because she wants her daughter to be baptized, but doesn’t want to just walk into her childhood church and do it, because she feels that she should be going to church first before baptizing her daughter.

She keeps telling me that she’ll never be Catholic. I’ve given her my copy of the book Catholicism for Dummies to thumb through. She has thumbed through it and states that there are many things that she could just never agree with. (2 of the many things she’s giving me are no birth control, no women priest) She has given me why she feels this way and that’s for a whole other thread together. So we’ll leave it at that.

She’s thumbed around on the internet and has considered herself to be more like the ELCA but doesn’t like any of the ELCA churches around here. So I just assumed that EL would be number 1 on her list.

Also for someone that has claimed that she will never be Catholic it was surprising to see EO listed as number 3. (Yes, it’s not Catholic but the beliefs are very close)

She did retake the test later. She changed some of her answers, and changed some of the priorities. However number one was still Episcopal/Anglican Church and two was Evangelical Lutheran Church. Also, when she retook the test 3rd and 4th switch making LCMS 3 and EO 4.

She told me that RC moved down a couple and the ones below it moved up.
She still doesn’t know what to think….

For someone that clams to be “liberal” I find it odd that in her top 4 she has what most would consider being conservative churches (i.e. EO and LCMS)

 

[KarenNC]

She doesn’t belong to any church, per se. Her family stop going to church when she was young. She’s been “searching” for somewhere to belong because she wants her daughter to be baptized, but doesn’t want to just walk into her childhood church and do it, because she feels that she should be going to church first before baptizing her daughter.

Well, I would agree with her on that one.

**She has thumbed through it and states that there are many things that she could just never agree with. (2 of the many things she’s giving me are no birth control, no women priest) **

Given that those are pretty important doctrines for the Catholic church, I would say she is wise in not trying to ally herself with a denomination that she could not support on primary issues.

**She’s thumbed around on the internet and has considered herself to be more like the ELCA but doesn’t like any of the ELCA churches around here. So I just assumed that EL would be number 1 on her list.

She did retake the test later. She changed some of her answers, and changed some of the priorities. However number one was still Episcopal/Anglican Church and two was Evangelical Lutheran Church.

For someone that clams to be “liberal” I find it odd that in her top 4 she has what most would consider being conservative churches (i.e. EO and LCMS)**

Given that she is liberal and the points that she listed, as well as the fact that if she is considering Lutheran, she might find a home in the Episcopal Church. It is probably the most liberal theologically while being the most traditional liturgically, if that is important to her. I did have a friend who went from Southern Baptist to Episcopal and is now a Jesuit priest, so who knows ? Is it more important in your mind that she be involved with some church vs. no church or the Catholic church vs. no church?

As to where things fall, it is a very limited test, and not something that is scientifcally normed, etc. I wouldn’t get too hung up on it. It’s something just for fun. It depends on which particular points of theology the person who made up the test chose to pick as identifiying markers for each denomination. After all, I’m not even Christian and look what came up for me .

 

[lak611]

I fw the link to a friend of mine.

Her top 4 were:
#1 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#2 Evangelical Lutheran Church
#3 Eastern Orthodox Church
#4 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Number 7 for my friend was Roman Catholic.

Weird
My friend didn’t know what to make of it…

Which of these churches does your friend actually belong to?

 

[Mommyof02green]

Which of these churches does your friend actually belong to?

Thanks for the tip…

She doesn’t belong to any church, per se. Her family stop going to church when she was young. She’s been “searching” for somewhere to belong because she wants her daughter to be baptized, but doesn’t want to just walk into her childhood church and do it, because she feels that she should be going to church first before baptizing her daughter.

She keeps telling me that she’ll never be Catholic. I’ve given her my copy of the book Catholicism for Dummies to thumb through. She has thumbed through it and states that there are many things that she could just never agree with. (2 of the many things she’s giving me are no birth control, no women priest) She has given me why she feels this way and that’s for a whole other thread together. So we’ll leave it at that.

She’s thumbed around on the internet and has considered herself to be more like the ELCA but doesn’t like any of the ELCA churches around here. So I just assumed that EL would be number 1 on her list.

Also for someone that has claimed that she will never be Catholic it was surprising to see EO listed as number 3. (Yes, it’s not Catholic but the beliefs are very close)

She did retake the test later. She changed some of her answers, and changed some of the priorities. However number one was still Episcopal/Anglican Church and two was Evangelical Lutheran Church. Also, when she retook the test 3rd and 4th switch making LCMS 3 and EO 4.

She told me that RC moved down a couple and the ones below it moved up.
She still doesn’t know what to think….

For someone that clams to be “liberal” I find it odd that in her top 4 she has what most would consider being conservative churches (i.e. EO and LCMS)

 

[mozart-250]

If s/he is RC or thinks s/he should have scored that as hightes, tell your friend to be sure that s/he also marked the bar beneath each question on how important this is to you–high, med or low (they are all at medium as a default). I didn’t do it the first time, then did it the second and it altered the order of the listing for me at least a bit.

Good point. I went back and did that and it did change the middle of my list. Didn’t notice the priority bar the first time.

 

[lak611]

For someone that clams to be “liberal” I find it odd that in her top 4 she has what most would consider being conservative churches (i.e. EO and LCMS)

It sounds like she probably is drawn to a liturgical church even if she is liberal. She seems to like liturgy because all of the churches are her top 5 are liturgical.

 

[Gardening_Mommy]

Here’s a quiz to determine your denomination. selectsmart.com/FREE/select.php?client=christiandenom

I took the quiz. I don’t think it’s entirely accurate. I got these results.
#1 Eastern Orthodox Church

#2 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

#3 Roman Catholic Church

Yeah, something is odd with their algorithms. I got the same top three. And by the time you get to the bottom of the 25 suggestions, haven’t you covered most mainline denominations in the U.S. ?

 

[LordHaveMercy]

#1 Roman Catholic Church
#2 Evangelical Lutheran Church
#3 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
#4 Eastern Orthodox Church
#5 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#6 Methodist/Wesleyan Church
#7 Church of Christ
#8 International Church of Christ
#9 Seventh-Day Adventist
#10 Assemblies of God
#11 Mennonite Brethren
#12 Free Will Baptist
#13 Mormonism
#14 United Pentecostal Church
#15 Orthodox Quakerism
#16 Presbyterian Church USA
#17 Presbyterian Church in America/Orthodox Presbyterian Church
#18 Reformed Churches
#19 Southern Baptist
#20 Reformed Baptist
#21 Jehovah’s Witness
#22 Liberal Quakerism
#23 Unity Church
#24 Unitarian Universalism

 

[nonsumd]

That poll was fun (except the part of having to skip through all those promotionals before getting to the results). Thanks for posting it!

My results pretty much came out as I expected. Many of the questions were stated in a way that I could not readily agree or disagree with, so I think I made some right choices when I rated my priorities on certain answers.

The only result that surprised me was that I was closer to Mormonism than to Methodism. I am not that surprised that I am closer to Mormonism than to various forms of Calvinism. Perhaps the pollmakers are using an overly Christianized/Christian-friendly form of Mormonism. Then again, Mormonism does resemble Protestantism in some respects, Catholicism-Orthodoxy in others, and in still others differs from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

#1 Roman Catholic Church
#2 Eastern Orthodox Church

#3 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
#4 Evangelical Lutheran Church
#5 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#6 Mormonism
#7 Methodist/Wesleyan Church
#8 Church of Christ
#9 International Church of Christ
#10 Assemblies of God
#11 United Pentecostal Church
#12 Free Will Baptist
#13 Mennonite Brethren
#14 Seventh-Day Adventist
#15 Orthodox Quakerism
#16 Presbyterian Church in America/Orthodox Presbyterian Church
#17 Reformed Churches
#18 Southern Baptist
#19 Presbyterian Church USA
#20 Reformed Baptist
#21 Jehovah’s Witness
#22 Liberal Quakerism
#23 Unitarian Universalism
#24 Unity Church

 

[lak611]

The only result that surprised me was that I was closer to Mormonism than to Methodism. I am not that surprised that I am closer to Mormonism than to various forms of Calvinism. Perhaps the pollmakers are using an overly Christianized/Christian-friendly form of Mormonism. Then again, Mormonism does resemble Protestantism in some respects, Catholicism-Orthodoxy in others, and in still others differs from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

I think it is possible that Mormonism is a result that is based on your answers regarding the Bible, tradition and women pastors. I may retake the quiz and try changing my answers on those questions to see what happens. If you answer that the Bible is not the sole rule of faith, tradition is important and women should not be pastors, that may skew the result toward Mormon, because they believe in the book of Mormon in addition to the Bible, they have their traditions, and they do not have women elders. I have not retaken the quiz yet, but that’s just my theory.

 

[nonsumd]

I think it is possible that Mormonism is a result that is based on your answers regarding the Bible, tradition and women pastors.

I think you are right, lak611. You reasoning would certainly explain why I was “more Mormon” than “Methodist” since the Methodists do allow for women pastors.

I did notice that some other folks had Mormonism pretty high up on their lists as well.

The survey does not take into account that Mormonism recognizes scriptures that the historical Christianity does not; that omission is bound to be distorting.

 

[Miserissima]

The survey does not take into account that Mormonism recognizes scriptures that the historical Christianity does not; that omission is bound to be distorting.

Absolutely – this quiz doesn’t account for subtelties or distinctions or semantics. It’s a straightforward, “Where do you stand on these issues?” without any qualifiers. I don’t think that it’s necessarily skewed, but very broad and not as in-depth as people would like.

Top four:
#1 Roman Catholic Church
#2 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#3 Evangelical Lutheran Church
#4 Seventh-Day Adventist

I was nonplussed by the Seventh-Day Adventist in the top 5; Eastern Orthodox was right behind. The “Unity Churches” seemed to be grouped together in the middle, still in the top 10.

Bottom four:
#20 Southern Baptist
#22 Reformed Baptist
#23 Reformed Churches
#24 Jehovah’s Witness

 

[rr1213]

Does the quiz seem to be titled a bit towards the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod? Or is it that the LCMS is closer to Catholic doctrine on some issues (say baptism) than many other Protestant Churches?