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One wonders why they'd go through so much effort to join a church that teaches abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell use, human cloning and homosexual relations are all "intrinsically evil actions" and opposes artifical birth control, divorce, ordaining woman, etc., etc. Doesn't sound to me like anyone who is liberal or moderate in their political thinking would be too happy in a church like that.

Liberals are comfortable in US Catholic churches because the hierarchy does litle to make them uncomfortable. They are not "called out" on their beliefs. They are not refused the Eucharist. The liberals see these teachings as quaint antiquities that can be ignored for the most part. In contrast, my experience in (conservative) protestant churches is that the congregation is homogenously conservative. Liberals truly do not feel comfortable there; they leave and find a liberal protestant denomination. That's fine with us.

>> Liberals are comfortable in US Catholic churches because the hierarchy does litle to make them uncomfortable. They are not "called out" on their beliefs. They are not refused the Eucharist. The liberals see these teachings as quaint antiquities that can be ignored for the most part. In contrast, my experience in (conservative) protestant churches is that the congregation is homogenously conservative. Liberals truly do not feel comfortable there; they leave and find a liberal protestant denomination. <<

Even though Catholics has a single person (the Pope) as "head" of the church, I see no difference in Catholics and Protestants in that members within their denomination may have individual parishes that are very liberal and others that are "homogenously conservative".

We were just having a thread on FR about Lutherans. Some parishes in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod are extremely conservative and any liberal would be very uncomfortable there. But the church we were talking about what the Reformed Lutheran Church of Witchia, a member of the Evagelical Lutheran Church of America. They had a late term abortion doctor serve as one of their church ushers and apparently the congregation and minister were perfectly okay with that. Yet they too are members in good standing of the "Lutheran" denomination of Christianity.

Same thing with Baptists christians. In general, the "Southern Baptist Conference" is very conservative and the "National Baptist Conference" is more liberal. But you will find liberal and conservative parishes in both branches. There are ultra conservative baptist ministers, and there are some black baptists who ministers are hard-left. But they all identify as Baptists.

Then there's Catholicism. Contrary to what many non-Catholics think, the Catholic church is not a single monolithic entity. There are currently 23 Catholic churches ("Roman Catholic" being the biggest), but they are all under the umbrella of the Pope. And that's not counting Catholics not in communion in the Pope like Mel Gibon's group and the Palmarian Catholic Church. There are all kinds of factions of Catholics. Jesuits tend to be very liberal and nutty. Members of the Society of St. Pius X and Opus Dei tend to be extremely conservative, traditional, and fundamentalist. Yet they are all Catholic Chrisitans in good standing with their church.

I recently joined a new Catholic parish where the pastor is very conservative and quite open about it. He has openly spoken out against Catholics that voted for Obama on numerous occasions. He quite vocally opposed Notre Dame University letting Obama speak. Last Sunday he even gave a sermon against "good Catholic families" who let their teenage kids pierce their nose and tongue.

I can tell you that anyone politically liberal minded would be very uncomfortable at my new parish.

Liberals are comfortable in US Catholic churches because the hierarchy does litle to make them uncomfortable. They are not "called out" on their beliefs. They are not refused the Eucharist. The liberals see these teachings as quaint antiquities that can be ignored for the most part. In contrast, my experience in (conservative) protestant churches is that the congregation is homogenously conservative. Liberals truly do not feel comfortable there; they leave and find a liberal protestant denomination. That's fine with us.

So much for a hierarchy and one guy in charge leading to everyone having the same "faith."

I've long noted that the "chaotic" world of Fundamentalist Protestantism is far more solid on most issues than the theoretically "conservative" Catholic Church. Indeed, about the only purpose the Pope and bishops seem to serve is to give people permission to believe in evolution.