Happy end of the year! Don't fear, I am still plodding away on research on some requests but I though this might be a good spot to slide in what a denomination actually IS as we move forward. Granted this is a very down and dirty explanation, because I am not really a theologian, I am just a poor history buff who reads hard-copy encyclopedias and Wikipedia for FUNSIES.
Welcome to the
Buckle up sistren, there's fuckery to uncoverThe basis of this series are my own experiences with living in a Fundamental Christian/Born-Again household until I was in my 30s (when I escaped--I'm not even lying about that), I pulled many of these off the top of my head and then filled in memory with research that sent me down a path of recollections I would much rather forget, BELIEVE ME. Remember, you are not forced to read....but I do hope you learn.Chapter 1: Hillsong | Chapter 2: James Dobson/Focus on the Family/Family Research Council/Family Talk | Chapter 3 - Part 1: Quiverfull/The Duggars/19 and Counting Part 2 | Chapter 4: Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker/PTL Chapter 5: What is a denomination ANWYAY?
History: Way back in the olde tyme dayz, if you were a Christian you were part of a single sect* of belief. It didn't matter where you were, if you believed in the quickly growing offshoot of Judaism that focused around Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ (Messiah), you were Christian (*there
were different 'flavors' but again, I am not a theologian and we will be here all year if we dig into THAT bag of cats). Christianity didn't really become mainstream until the 4th century AD, when it was made a legal religion in the Roman Empire and the catholic Church was codified.
Yes. Small 'c' catholic. The definition of the word 'catholic' is 'all encompassing'. Small 'c' catholic didn't become Big 'C' Catholic until the 11th century (July 16, 1054, to be precise), when The Schism (break) between the Eastern (the part of the Roman Empire that contained Constantinople (Istanbul), what is now Turkey and the majority of the Middle East) and the Western (the part of the Roman Empire that contained Rome and Western Europe) Church occurred. The Eastern branch became known as the Orthodox Church and the Western Branch became the Big C Roman Catholic Church.
The split that most people know more about is called The Protestant Reformation. Which was originally called the German Reformation, but ya know...history.
As happens with most major organizations, the draw of political power and riches took over the Church and the Church? WAS FUCKING LOADED. Even as the Western Roman Empire dissolved, the Roman Catholic Church remained. Every kingdom gave money and land to the Church. Every ruling monarch deferred to the sitting Pope. And because the majority of the population (lay persons) were illiterate, they were forced to depend on priests and monks to read and interpret the Bible for them.
Here's the problem with that: One of the major tenets of Christianity is--
to read the Scriptures and determine for yourself your own faith. By making education well out of reach for anyone else but the monied few who could afford to send their
sons to school, ensuring that those educated by the Church stayed in or were tightly affiliated with said Church, and indoctrinating the lay population (aka EVERYONE ELSE) that the only way to get to Heaven and a cushy afterlife was through The Church, its hierarchy and all of their rules and regulations (
the monarchy included), the Popes and his crews got to keep all the gold and other goodies that flowed in.
They say you want a Reformation...
Martin Luther was the son of a copper-refiner who had been educated by The Church and was supposed to enter the lawyer business. Instead, he became a Augustinian monk in order to fulfill a promise made during a particularly terrible thunderstorm. Papa Luther was---not very happy about it as even then the law was a far more lucrative profession than a consecrated (and taking a vow of poverty) monk.
By all accounts, Luther was a very good and devout monk. Which is probably what caused what happened next.
During 1510-1511, he was assigned to Rome by his order to complain about a papal decree that merged the German Augustine observant and non-observant (secular) branches. The observant Augustines (the part Luther belonged to) were not happy about it. Pope Julius II gave zero fucks, his mind was made up. And Luther? Had his first taste of sourness about the leadership of the Catholic Church.
As Luther studied more, he found instance after instance that proved salvation was based on free-will and faith alone. He grew to see that salvation was a gift from God that one only needed to
choose to accept. And the collective YOU were the only ones responsible for asking. There wasn't any need to have anyone (priests) intercede on your behalf. There certainly wasn't any need to use a middle-man (saints and the Virgin Mary) to get God to hear your prayers.
According to Luther's studies, the BIBLE says the path of salvation is:
YOU ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins (for which He took a universe-level beating in order to do)
Jesus tells God 'hey Dad, this human asked for forgiveness, how about we do that? No? THE HOLES IN MY FUCKING HANDS AND FEET SAY WE DO M'K!?!?!?'
God sends the Holy Spirit into your heart to wash away your sins spiritually, which you show publicly by being baptized in the river or whatever body of water is handy.
YOU hold up your end of the deal by doing good deeds, caring for the poor and needy and living an overall decent life IN HIS NAME so when you die you go STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN.
No being Catholic at birth, certainly no child baptisms, prayers of intercession, etc. etc. etc.--salvation was a CHOICE and that choice had to be made actively and as someone informed in the scripture...which you had to be reading for yourself.
Of course, most of his fellow priests didn't see it that way. By this time in history, besides being the keepers of all the knowledge, the Church was selling what were called indulgences: letters absolving the disgustingly rich purchasers of varied sins, from small infractions to major crimes like murder, r*pe, and so on. Indulgences would lessen the time you spent in Purgatory (the afterlife waystation where your soul was cleansed of remaining sins before you headed to Heaven or even shoot you up the queue and straight into the best parts of Heaven.
Funny, there's NO way station for Hell, you just slide right on down there.)
The varied popes sort of turned a blind eye to the practice at first but by 1516, the muckety muck in power, Pope Leo X, was sending friars here, there and everywhere to actively sell letters of indulgence to raise money to build and refurbish cathedrals all over the Catholic world. Manage to scrape together some silver pennies? You could get an indulgence too! But just a little one. Maybe you'd only be able to sniff the air around a SACRED (mostly fake) RELIC to get you bumped up the line to only 90,000 years in Purgatory instead of 100,000 years.
Footage of me while I do research on this series
Luther wasn't having it. According to his studies, forgiveness of sin was God/Trinity-Tier power ONLY and the Pope...was not God. In 1517, he wrote out and had someone nail his complaints about the greed mongering and other infractions he found out of pocket on the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg. There were ninety-five of them, called theses. Basically, he called anyone who was getting coins off the back of selling forgiveness jackals (NOT US WE'RE GOOD JACKALS!) and told them to repent.
Needless to say, Leo X was none too happy about this and told Luther to knock it off. After a few years of back and forth between Luther and Rome, the Pope finally issued a notice to Luther to recant his attacks on The Church or get kicked out. Luther burned the notice because Rome had burned his books a few years previously. (Petty. We love it.) Leo X excommunicated (kicked out) Luther in 1521; moreover, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (basically the Church's fav puppet ruler) declared via the Edict of Worms that Luther was a heretic and banned all subjects of the Holy Roman Empire from following his teachings.
Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason (I do not accept the authority of popes and councils because they have contradicted each other), my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. So help me God. Amen. [aka, fuck you greedy bitches, I'm right, see you all in Hell from my seat in Heaven, motherfuckers]
Well. Clearly, that didn't work.
The Reformation spread through parts of Germany quickly and it just happened to coincide with good ol' Henry VIII of England trying to get under Anne Boleyn's skirts. Since Pope Clement VII wouldn't grant him an annulment from his wife of twenty years Catherine of Aragon (a marriage his father had already conned Rome into accepting since Chatherine was the widow of Henry's dead brother Arthur)---he broke the Catholic Church by creating the Church of England in 1534 and made himself and subsequent English monarchs the head of said church, so that he could divorce Catherine and marry Anne to get his long desired male heir (Newsflash: he didn't, it took Jane Seymour to get him that sweet boy child).
Even though the CofE didn't (and still doesn't) see itself as a proper PROSTESTANT (aka German) denomination, its creation certainly helped Luther's Reformation stick and newly minted Queen Consort Anne Boelyn was a big fan of Luther and his work. Before she lost her head. But not before she implanted Reformation doctrine (and a shit-ton of politics) firmly in her daughter Elizabeth's brainpan.
For OUR purposes going forward, a Protestant denomination is a branch church formed off the back of the original 16th century German Reformation spearheaded by Martin Luther. (See this long ass list for who that covers.)
Protestant denominations tend to be much more conservative than the organization they are moving from, owing to the "protest" and "reform" in the "Protest"ant "Reform"ation movement. As soon as a denomination becomes more codified and established (and somewhat more moderate/liberal), you customarily end up with a small, traditionally more conservative group shifting off, unhappy with said established leadership as being too 'lenient'. And so on, and so on and so on---until you reach the level of the 'non-denominational churches'
So What is Non-denominational?
Non-denominational churches, for the most part, have no overreaching leadership council that oversees the doctrine taught or any rules to be held to. Though both Judaism and Islam also have non-denominational factions, the term is traditionally associated with Christianity.
The formation of non-denominational churches are based on these Bible verses:
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:19-20)
In the very early days of the Church, most gatherings were held in the homes of believers. In secret because Christianity was considered a radical and potentially treasonist belief system. Non-denominational churches claim they don't need a larger ruling body because Christ Himself gave two or three permission to commune and become 'the Church'. They are led by members of the church congregation (often a group of elders men), reflecting a belief that a church is a community of believers rather than a hierarchy. The elders (or deacons more men) then are responsible for hiring a pastor (an ancient word that transliterates into meaning 'shepherd') who then leads the (sheep) congregation.
[Almost ALL Christian allegories involve sheep and shepherds, going all the way back to its roots in Judaism. Several of Jesus' many nicknames include 'The Lamb of God' and 'The Great Shepherd']
Non-denominational churches also tend to lean to the most extreme of the extreme beliefs. Since they declare that the Bible contains the only rules needed to run a congregation, they can pick and choose which tenets they want to focus on (or as aptly put in 
hallyujah's comment in another post:'cafeteria Christianity'). Many of these churches have a traditional sanctuary that includes spaces for meetings like Sunday School, Bible Study, music group rehearsal, educational or social events, but many meet in homes, or have their physical locations in non-traditional places--like strip malls or repurposed fast food restaurants.
Not surprisingly, the majority of what are called 'mega-churches' (congregations of over 2,000 people attending weekend services) in the US are non-denominational. There are only 3 states (Wyoming, North Dakota and Maine) that do not contain a megachurch level congregation.
Here's something else to clarify: Pentecostal and non-denominational are NOT flip-flop terms. There is a Pentecostal denomination. Non-denominational and 'Evangelical' can be interchanged...but Evangelical is more of a doctrinal term, meaning your church's stated mission (SHOULD BE, ISN'T ALWAYS) is actively engaging non-Christians and converting them into believers. You can have an Evangelical Pentecostal church. You can't have a non-denominational Pentecostal church.
The pros of not belonging to one of the formal denominations is: not having an overarching body to answer to in regards to doctrine makes it easier to pivot the message and mission of the congregation to matters that directly affect the church and the community it is in. They don't have to wait for the OK from the council to make moves and changes in their mission.
The cons of not belonging to one of the formal denominations is: not having an overarching body to answer to in regards to doctrine making it easier to pivot the message and mission of the congregation to whatever the hell leadership wants it to be in order to fulfill their own priorities/perversions/etc. and there is no one able to stop them unless they actually break a law..
For example, there are several cases where pastors/ministers are defrocked (deprived of their professional status or membership) by their original denomination (i.e. Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart both got kicked out of the Assemblies of God after their scandals), only to rise up again on their own with the same shit doctrine, but now without any regulations short of actual laws to stop them from spiraling into full cult-status or other shadiness.
Most of the super big-bad church scandals come from some of the most conservative denominations (Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, Pentecostal), non-denominational churches and inter-denominational movements (Prosperity Doctrine, Quiverfull, televangelists, etc.) Surprisingly, some of the most liberal denominations in North America are also some of the oldest (Unitarians, Episcopalians [New World CofE], and a solid chunk of Methodists) tend to be less embroiled in salacious scandals due to being far more open to the general populace. Many of these older denominations support human rights for all and often show support for the LGBTQ+ community, including allowing queer leadership (reverends and bishops) in the hierarchy.
disclaimer: I do believe in a higher power out there in the cosmos (I choose to call it 'God', you good sistren can call it whatever it is you want to). Be a good person. Treat others how you want to be treated. DO NOT LET SOME FLASHY ASS GUY ON THE RADIO TELL YOU WHAT TO BELIEVE. Or one who stands in front of you in a pulpit on Sundays either. The best lesson I got out of my years of Christian captivity (oop, education) was the one that my mother really didn't want me to have: QUESTION EVERYTHING. The Bible is a book, claiming to be the Word of God but written by FALLIBLE HUMAN MEN. It has been messed with multiple times and fashioned to fit what a small group of people (white men) WANTED it to say. You're allowed to challenge it. As a matter of fact, it's your duty to.
tl;dr: Matthew 7: 3-5
Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye...
Sources: 1, 2, 3 https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/124915726.html
