This thread is a great way to perpetuate ignorant stereotypes. Nice job, OP! I like your idea of light-hearted fun!

Ingenious vehicle to organize groups of people to kill other people and steal their resources with the absolute belief of being right and doing good.

Presbyterians and Methodists are very similar, except for church governance. Methodist is top down leadership (bishops assign pastors to congregations), and Presbyterian is bottom up (each church calls its own pastor).

OP, I tend to group Mainline Protestants (e.g., Methodists, UCC, Presbyterians, etc) together when explaining Christianity to folks who are either not Christian or have not studied New and Old Testament in a college course for example.

About Lutherans:

ELCA Lutherans are the most liberal of the Lutherans when it comes to social issues.

Missouri Synod Lutherans - much more conservative

Wisconsin Synod Lutherans - uberconservative! They believe the Pope is the Antichrist! Michelle Bachmann is a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran.

Anonymous wrote:Mormons and Jehovas Witnesses: cults claiming to be.

Orthodox and catholics: both claiming to be the original church which split in year1200

Hey, at least you put us in the Christian category. Progress

Anonymous wrote:For Presbyterians, there is a huge difference between PCA= Pres. Church of America
PC USA = Pres. Church of the Unites States

One is very fundamentalist...like Baptists, the other is more Methodisty. I forget which is which.

PCUSA is considered less conservative than the PCA.

Presbyterians - the "frozen chosen", but at the forefront in terms of civil rights / social justice issues. (At least the PCUSA ones.)

Presbyterians are very much into being "Witnesses to Christ's influence" from what I can tell in a very concrete way. They are constantly having talks about how someone witnessed Christ's help in their time of need verses say having Christ guide them to make a decision on something.

Anonymous wrote:Mormons and Jehovas Witnesses: cults claiming to be.

Orthodox and catholics: both claiming to be the original church which split in year1200

It's amazing how many Americans don't know we exist. There are 300 million of us in the world.
List of Christian denominations by number of members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members#Oriental_Orthodoxy_-_82_million

For Presbyterians, there is a huge difference between PCA= Pres. Church of America
PC USA = Pres. Church of the Unites States

One is very fundamentalist...like Baptists, the other is more Methodisty. I forget which is which.

Martin Luther would have been very surprised at the idea that his reformation was "Catholic lite."

I remember my grandmother (Lutheran -- but NOT MISSOURI SYNOD!!! -- this is important, but I still don't know why) calling Presbyterians "Kumbaya Christians". She didn't mean it as a compliment.

Mormons and Jehovas Witnesses: cults claiming to be.

Orthodox and catholics: both claiming to be the original church which split in year1200

This is *kind of!* for fun. And yes, Catholics are Christians. =) This is an effort to help distinguish among the various Christian denominations in a light-hearted way.

Catholic (which I am) -- Saints, symbols, transubstatiation FTW!

Methodist -- Singing!! and potlucks

Episcopalian -- Catholic Lite / Catholic without the guilt

Baptist -- Expressive worship. No dancing/drinking/fun! Catholics are devil-worshippers.

Lutheran -- Another Catholic-lite

Presbyterian -- (I have no way to distinguish them from any other Christians; any help is welcome)

Charismatics/Pentacostals -- "You are healed!!!" *smacked on the forehead*, speaking in tongues