Favorite Christian Denomination

[The Brain]

Muslims plundered the Vatican.

[Sheilbh]

That surprises me. I mean jazz is one specific genre whereas religiously inspired art or music is the entire Western Canon until the 18th century. Subsequently it's less common but still a relatively important stream of art, music, film and literature. It seems a big part of our cultural heritage to simply be indifferent to.

I would've expected you to be like Fry, Dawkins or Hitchens (I can't remember which) who obviously are terribly atheist but still liked cultural Anglicanism (or whichever else) - Evensong service, an English country church, the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer.

Edit: Incidentally what made me choose Catholicism was a sort of feverish intensity of that Church. But especially the music and art of the Baroque Church, which is, for me unbeatable.

Like the famous atheist above I love the sort of languid traditional Anglicanism. English country churches that just seem comfortable in their landscape. Evensong and the English choral tradition. The language of their translations are also outstanding in beauty.

With the Orthodox it's the alien-ness, for me, that I find so compelling. The icons and the sound of the chant which really seem - though I could be wrong - to be trying to create a sense of other-ness even if you speak the language and that's your tradition.

[Barrister]

I went orthodox.  There's just something very appealing about their iconography and their services (I attended one or two - didn't understand a word, but very interesting).

We serve in English, you know.

I of course voted Ortho.  No surprises there.

The service I remember attending was for my girlfriend's grandfather's funeral, who was a Ukrainian orthodox priest.  Actually he might have been Romanian Orthodox - their home town was right on the border.

But in any event, the service wasn't in English.

[Sheilbh]

We serve in English, you know.

I of course voted Ortho.  No surprises there.

My parents live in deep rural Dorset. Their next door neighbour is the former Vicar of the village. He's very religiously conservative and was furious when the CofE accepted women priests. So he refused to swim the Tiber (like hell was he going Papist) and now has a small Antiochian Orthodox Chapel down the road

Services are in English.

[Zanza]

That surprises me. I mean jazz is one specific genre whereas religiously inspired art or music is the entire Western Canon until the 18th century. Subsequently it's less common but still a relatively important stream of art, music, film and literature. It seems a big part of our cultural heritage to simply be indifferent to.

I would've expected you to be like Fry, Dawkins or Hitchens (I can't remember which) who obviously are terribly atheist but still liked cultural Anglicanism (or whichever else) - Evensong service, an English country church, the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer.

Okay, so if I appreciate Leonardo's Last Supper or Michelangelo's Pietà, both of which are clearly religiously inspired pieces of art, what poll option would I have to check? Catholic because they both were Catholics?

Is there anything specific about the art or music of the Baptists or Methodists that I should know about to pick a poll option?

[Sheilbh]

Okay, so if I appreciate Leonardo's Last Supper or Michelangelo's Pietà, both of which are clearly religiously inspired pieces of art, what poll option would I have to check? Catholic because they both were Catholics?

That's how I approached it, but everyone will do it differently. I love the Catholic Baroque, so I voted for the Catholic Church. But I also find Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, Calvinism very culturally appealing.

From what I understand there may be the same for Germans with Lutheranism as there is with the English and Anglicanism - there are beautiful translations and Luther-written hymns etc. But I don't know, I've no idea about Lutheranism.

Is there anything specific about the art or music of the Baptists or Methodists that I should know about to pick a poll option?

I know nothing about Baptists. All they bring to mind for me is the Southern Baptist Convention. Whereas Methodists, again for me personally, are Welsh and West Country non-conformists. Little meeting houses, male voice choirs, temperance and social reform.

[Queequeg]

And Labour.  I'd think the role of non-conformists in the development of Labour would put them on your top-4 list, Sheilbh. 

[Queequeg]

Yes. I could also tell you some basic information about half of the poll choices. But the difference between "mainline" and "other" Catholics or between orthodox, oriental orthodox and other non-catholic eastern churches is beyond my interest. I am sure they have some dogmatic, ritual or hierarchical differences, but while I am generally a quite curious person that never really interested me in detail. And even if I had encyclopedic knowledge about all the various Christian denominations, I would still not really be able to pick a favorite as I have no personal affinity to any of them.

1) Other Catholic mostly means the Uniate and other Eastern Catholic Churches. Could also include the various strange Papist Churches in Africa, where practically speaking clergy marry. 
2) Oriental Orthodox-Armenian, Ethiopian, Coptic.
3) Other Eastern-I'm mostly thinking of the Old Believers. 

[PDH]

Which ones have the best dinners is the better question. Catholics do better pancake breakfasts, but you just can't beat Baptist fried chicken.

You want stick to the ribs food?  Lutheran, especially upper Midwest.

[Queequeg]

Which ones have the best dinners is the better question. Catholics do better pancake breakfasts, but you just can't beat Baptist fried chicken.

You want stick to the ribs food?  Lutheran, especially upper Midwest.

You mean Lutefisk?

[Queequeg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkX914_Ltc

[Ed Anger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkX914_Ltc

[Sheilbh]

And Labour.  I'd think the role of non-conformists in the development of Labour would put them on your top-4 list, Sheilbh.

Yeah. Labour but even before that they were at the lead in anti-slave trade campaigns and 19th century liberalism. There's a lot to love about the Methodists.

[mongers]

Okay, so if I appreciate Leonardo's Last Supper or Michelangelo's Pietà, both of which are clearly religiously inspired pieces of art, what poll option would I have to check? Catholic because they both were Catholics?

That's how I approached it, but everyone will do it differently. I love the Catholic Baroque, so I voted for the Catholic Church. But I also find Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, Calvinism very culturally appealing.

From what I understand there may be the same for Germans with Lutheranism as there is with the English and Anglicanism - there are beautiful translations and Luther-written hymns etc. But I don't know, I've no idea about Lutheranism.

Is there anything specific about the art or music of the Baptists or Methodists that I should know about to pick a poll option?

I know nothing about Baptists. All they bring to mind for me is the Southern Baptist Convention. Whereas Methodists, again for me personally, are Welsh and West Country non-conformists. Little meeting houses, male voice choirs, temperance and social reform.

This is what interests me with regard to the original question. 

Four hundred yards from here is a largely unchanged early 18th century Presbyterian meeting house, it became Unitarian in the 19th and now sadly isn't used for religion, but music and coffee mornings etc.

I've always had a unspoken ambition to do something political in it, as I feel what formerly went on in there was in part political in nature.

[Queequeg]

Central irony of European history of the 2nd Millennium; Liberalism (through the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution) and Capitalism (the Dutch, Scottish, English Dissenters) are hugely indebted to Jean Calvin, something close to Europe's Muhammed bin al-Wahhab.