Monday, April 11, 2005

Not really a Quaker

A few days ago I posted a link to a little online quiz called What Denomination Are You Really?
I emailed the link to friends and family and we have had an interesting time comparing and discussing our results.

My brother, an Episcopalian by choice and marriage, found himself categorized as Eastern Orthodox. Portia was told she should be a Methodist and is puzzled about it. Although one of our pastors was fortunately rated as a Presbyterian/Reformed, his runner-up denomination was Eastern Orthodox and he can't figure that out either. El Jefe and Babs rated as Presbyterian/Reformed. We're still waiting to hear from a few others.

We've had some lively discussions about which answers were "right" and how they may be used to define the results you get. Some of the questions were obvious and some were not. We also wondered how your result would be changed by "don't know" answers.

A few years ago there was a similar online quiz that I took. If memory serves, it had a lot more questions. That quiz said I should be a Quaker! Not really. These quiz questions are on theology and church government and do not include social and political issues that these denominations may have. It occured to me that if those types of issues were included, I might not have had my Presbyterian result.

The quiz is a good reminder that none of us are in complete accord with every aspect of our denominational traditions. We are drawn to the churches we attend for many reasons, not all of which include acceptance of each theological doctrine or polity structure. The community of other Christians and our life together in the congregation is the most important tie that binds us to the churches we join.

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