The problem is that abstinence republicans want to make condoms and abortions illegal.

When a politician says ‘abstinence’ they don’t mean “abstinence for some people if they want” they mean “I will fucking slam the hammer of draconian legislation on you if your every action isn’t in line with my wacko non-biblical christian ideology”

@nyoki: Don’t listen to Protestant Propaganda. Catholocism is essentially the oldest type of Biblical Christianity (early Jewish Christians didn’t have Gospels – they were written in Greek).

Gradually the Catholic Churches entered into Schisms, and then those entered into schisms. This is roughly a map of modern sects:

1) Othodox (incl. Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Ethiopian). Still based on the early hierarchy of the primitive, pre-Constantine Church and influenced heavily by the pre-Constantine theologians. MOST of these Churches are currently in “communion” which means they agree to disagree (ie about the Pope).

2) Protestant (Lutheran is the big one, with lots of tiny ones as well; Calvinist, Presbyterian are on the fringes). Basically a major rebellion against the Church. They didn’t like the Church’s rigid hierarchies, but were VERY political, and mainly gained support because it was a way for petty European states to rebel against Rome and Vienna.

There is VERY LITTLE theology involved in the Protestant/Catholic difference, except for the less rigid hierarchy and a lot of cruft like sacraments.

Some of the most brutal wars in the history of the world were fought over this cruft. People talk about the Crusades and the Spanish inquisition, but between the persecution of the Catholics in England and many petty states, the persecution of the Protestants in France and many other petty states, the Thirty years’ war (in which one soldier died for every 1000 civilians or so, and much of Europe was burned), the Irish rebellions, the Irish persecutions, conflicts in the New World, The English cycle of civil wars etc etc.

My personal favourite is when the Protestants started nailing babies to church doors in England.

Basically, you can be an ignorant dickwad and pretend the number of sacraments is religiously significant, but ultimately the Protestant movement was a Political movement, and one of the most brutal in history.

3) Anabaptist – Quaker is the least extreme of these, Amish is the most. Lot’s of focus on agriculture, removing yourself from society if it conflicts with the ten commandments, that kind of thing.

Baptist is a Protestant/Anabaptist hybrid. Anglican is Protestant, but with much stronger Catholic residue than most.

And, for the record, none of the differences between Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican are derived from the Bible, except for strained “interpretations” of the Bible. Most of the differences lies in later theological discourse. Jesus wouldn’t know what the fuck any of these people were killing each other over.

@asdf: Is it 426 AD? Most of the “Christological” debates were settled before the seventh or eighth century. A few revivals have taken place (with very few followers, the Jehovah’s Witness being the most famous) but for the most part all the sects agree on standard high medieval trinitarianism for their Christology position.

Cracker.