After the sermon a few people asked me about the meaning of the phrase "mainline church." Here is a good description of that phrase along with links to other articles about Christianity from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.
Peace,
Jon B. ///
Mainline Churches
In the United States, the mainline (also sometimes called mainstream ) churches are those Protestant denominations with moderate theologies which attempt to be open to new ideas and societal changes without abandoning what they consider to be the historical basis of the Christian faith. They are neither the more liberal groups such as Unitarian Universalism nor fundamentalist in their beliefs. These groups have been more open to demands for the ordination of women. They have been far from uniform in their reaction to the gay rights movement, but have not rejected it dogmatically in the way that it has been by the Catholic Church and the more conservative Protestant churches. They take a moderate view with regards to military service – all provide chaplains to the US Armed Forces and none are historically peace churches except possibly the Church of the Brethren – but all express reservations about aggressive use of military force for any reason.
The hallmark of the mainline churches would seemlingly be moderation. Only a few members or pastors in them would condemn the use of alcohol in moderation. Their theologies tend to be moderate and influenced, consciously or not, by the higher criticism. Most ministers and most members seem to be comfortable with modern-language (including inclusive language) translations of the Bible.
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