Presbyterian Church in America

The Quakers were first founded in the mid-1600s in England and were formerly known as The Religious Society of Friends. They were a very simple and devoted democratic group of people. When they arrived in America, they began to try to settle in Massachusetts. Massachusetts was also where the Puritan colonists had been settling and because they (the Quakers) threatened the Puritan’s beliefs in America they gave them and other opposing religions, such as the Baptists, harsh punishments for inhabiting their land which included hanging, fines, whipping, and banishing the people from Massachusetts. The Quakers later moved their efforts to the new land of Pennsylvania. They established their land on “the equality of all persons (including women, blacks, and Indians) before God.” They proved this stance of equality by being the “first group of whites to repudiate slavery” of Africans. They also purchased their found land from the Indians that owned it. These actions show that the Quakers truly lived in equality. “Religious freedom was Penn’s most fundamental principle.” The Quakers never gave an established church for Pennsylvania and allowed almost all religious freedom in its land. Although the Quakers were lenient on race, gender, and religious preference they did have a “strict code of personal morality.” They “prohibited swearing, drunkenness, and adultery” among many other activities that they thought were immoral. Many of their beliefs spread throughout America and has

Church of the Brethren does not accept abortion. Participating in abortion is not support their beliefs. Church of the Brethren is a denomination that was formed to continue their practices their own way. They started as a small group and to this day still recruit new members. They solely use the New Testament as their source of guidance for the practice they preach. Rational Choice theory explains Church of the Brethren 's position in opposing abortion.

“We are a church transformed by grace, connected through relationships and committed to service” is their mission statement and as is everything down in Texas, they are big! They have a large campus with several buildings surrounding the main sanctuary and a visitors center that can be accessed with one of their many golf carts. I must say, as someone who works with youth, I was impressed as to their commitment to a separate building for kids, especially those in middle school and high school. At a time when autonomy is so important for a young person, (and budgets are limited), having their own space is quite impressive.

Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church has two different youth groups, one for the Senior High and one for the Junior High. The Edge program, which is the youth group as a whole, consists of dividing the students into young teen and senior teen. Every Sunday night the youth group meets from 6pm to 7:45pm. Ryan Moline is the youth pastor of the young teens, he has split the youth group into the 7th and 8th graders which meet on Sunday nights and 5th and 6th graders that meet on Wednesday nights. I decided to visit with the 7th and 8th graders on Sunday night.

Being the most observed, it ranks at Eighty-three percent (83%) of the national religious population, says Gary Langer from ABC news. Although the Christian community reeks of dominance through their vast diversity in denominations, their large presence ironically also poses as one of the many reasons why it stands just equally as polarized and counterproductive.

Throughout American history, the United States Mint has coined several denominations that would now be considered “odd” or “strange” by the general public: half cent, two cent, three cent, half dime, twenty cent, quarter eagle, three dollar, half eagle, eagle, and double eagle. At the time, however, many of these were seen in everyday circulation, a completely normal denomination. Each of them had a purpose behind its inception and a practical use after mintage. For example, the two cent piece was coined during and after the American Civil War to address the shortage of small denomination coinage. The three cent piece was minted to make purchasing postage more convenient, which was priced at three cents at the time. One of these denominations stands out from the rest: the twenty cent piece. It holds the honor of being the shortest lived circulation denomination in United States history. This, however, should not come as a surprise; the denomination was doomed from the beginning.

preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, (3) He met the needs of people, (4) He made disciples through the power of the Spirit, and (5) He gave His life as a sacrifice. These are the keys to true biblical ministry.

St. Paul's Presbyterian Church seeks to provide a safe and secure environment for the children

We have just come into our own at Park Lake Drive Baptist Church, after years of

Coalbush United Methodist Church is in Mishawaka, Indiana. The Indiana Conference church development team selected Coalbush as a strategic location for potential growth. The church is located right off of the US 20 bypass on the south side of Mishawaka. The city is slowly moving out toward the country, which is how this church views itself: a country church. Mishawaka is not predicted to experience great growth in the next ten years with the make up of a household having little change either. The majority of the people are Anglo-American with little diversity. This is a somewhat traditional community where the majority of people report a sense of well-being. The average household income is approximately $60,000. The largest age group is between 35-55 years old.

The United States has a history of being tremendously diverse in religions and cultures from all over the world. Although our nation is immensely diverse, one in four Americans are Roman Catholic today (Chase, 1-23-15). With such a large population, Roman Catholics have had multiple changes and barriers to their religious faith. Many Catholics can trace back to the point in time when their ancestors arrived in the United States and what specific events altered their religious experiences. Although most immigrants arrived to the United States during the 19th century, Catholic immigration occurred many years before the European movement My mother and father both grew up in the Roman Catholic faith with their ancestors migrating to the United States in the 1850s. Although their families came to the US at the same time, they had some different social and political experiences growing up.

I was raised in what now would be called White privilege. The Edgemont area in Provo, Utah was an extremely homogenous culture. My family, along with most of the other families in my neighborhood were young, White, middle class, highly educated, conservative, heterosexual, and Mormon with European ancestry. My father, along with most of the other fathers in the neighborhood, was a professor at Brigham Young University. Our culture was based on the teachings of the Mormon Church with a rich pioneer heritage which we celebrated every 24th of July. As children, we would don pioneer garb, decorate wagons and bikes to look like covered wagons or handcarts and march around the church building pretending to be pioneers. Not only was this event fun, but we could feel the pioneer blood flowing through our veins. The pioneers represented to us hard work, sacrifice, devotion, obedience, courage, fortitude and love of God.

I would consider myself a Catholic from birth and choice. Every Sunday at noon I attend Holy Family Catholic Church along with my family. On a particular Sunday my friends and I attended Grace Presbyterian Church instead of our usual Catholic environment. Grace was quite interestingly similar to my church with a few differences.

Mid County Arabic Baptist Church of St. Louis - Mission 11510 Old St. Charles Road Bridgeton MO 63044 636-282-9764 Pastor: Hermez Moshi Bethany Deaf Baptist Church 310 E. Argonne Dr Kirkwood, MO 63122 314-984-9224 Pastor: Thomas Lovis Bible Way Baptist Chruch 7800 Groby St. Louis, MO 63130 314-725-8838 Pastor: Nate Strachan Dorsett Village Baptist Church 2240 Bennington Pl. Maryland Heights, MO 63043 314-576-7729 Pastor: Mark Cline www.dorsettvillagechurch.org Fee Fee Baptist Church 11330 St. Charles Rock Rd Bridgeton, MO 63044 314-739-1525 Pastor: Randy Fullerton www.feefeebc.org Fellowship of Nations - Church Plant 7131

The Catholic Church “strongly promotes the use of modern biblical criticism, paired with prayful reflection, to interpret the Scriptures” (Frigge, 51). “The Catholic position on biblical criticism had shifted completely, from emphatic rejection of this approach to strong support for its use” (Frigge, 51). Being a Catholic is hard for me to understand due to the fact this ideas was so foreign to them and after it was widely used for awhile we decide to use it then. I don’t believe that they Catholic Church would accept the teaching of Simon and Wellhausen about Moses. The Catholics like to stick to how things have always been and when change is evitable they wait until the last moment they have to change something.