To treat Protestantism as a monolith, of course, as PRmerger appears to do, is ridiculous. Protestantism is very diverse, true, and that can be seen as a weakness or a strength. Judge for yourself. However, I don't know of any Protestant sect that has approved of polygamy, although the Old Testament apparently did. How many wives did that wise old Solomon have? Was it 600 wives and 1000 concubines, or the other way around? David had a few. Jacob had two wives and two concubines. Etc. But the Mormons, for the record, are not Protestants. They have a totally different prophet, a different scripture, etc. They are about as Protestant as the Muslims are. Ask them. They will tell you that they are not Protestants. In fact, they are organized much like the Catholic Church with a president who receives divine revelations, somewhat like the Pope. Their Vatican is in Salt Lake City. Centralized and authoritarian. And mainstream Mormonism rejected polygamy back when Utah wanted to join the union.
As far as the inferiority of African--Americans, the main leaders in the Civil Rights Movement were Protestant ministers beginning with Dr. King. One of the men killed (Reeb) by the KKK element was a white Unitarian minister. Dozens of Protestant clergy, black and white, went to jail in that movement. The Catholic priesthood was not permitted to join with Protestant clergy in these protests until after Vatican II, and even then those participating were mainly nuns The Berrigan brothers did their own thing, but they were 'mavericks'. The heart of the American abolitionist movement was in the Protestant Church. Frederck Douglass and Harriet Tubman, for example, were Methodists. Now, to be fair, much of the resistance to racial progress was among white southern Protestants, and therefore Protestants have little reason to boast. If you remember, there was much resistance within the Boston Irish community as well.
Now as to women inferiority. It strikes me that Catholicism has made some progress in that area, especially among nuns, but mainstream Protestantism is miles ahead. Take the United Methodist Church. Of its 50,000 or so US clergy, roughly 10,000 are women. Of its 50 active Bishops the last I heard 14 were women. The % in the UCC probably is higher, There are hundreds of women clergy among Presbyteians, Episcopalisns, etc. The first denomination to have women clergy was the Salvation Army, which developed out of the Methodists. And we could go on and on.
The only reason I challenge the Catholics here is because so many of them come across as close-minded fanatics. Actually, among my Catholic family members and friends I find very little of that. I presume they would not be the ones to debate on CAF. I find the same among Protestant family members and friends. My concern is more that some of them are becoming disiullusioned by the church. The sex scandal has played a major role - including the Swaggarts, Haggards and Bakkers as well as Catholic priests. And many of them are beginning to feel the church is irrelevant, even a detriment in society. Their attitude toward the churches is much like that of millions toward the government. They have lost confidence in the leadership. While the Catholic clergy are catching most of the flak, the fallout hurts Protestant clergy, also, as many don't make distinctions. Religion is religion.
Well, that's it for now.
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