Edit: Thanks so much for the answers already. Can you focus a bit more on the difference US/Europe? I now really feel it’s twisted - Evangelicals are mor radical than Catholics in the US and Catholics being more radical in Europe

All I hear from evangelicals in the US is that they are super radical. Here in central Europe, we are divided between Catholics and Protestants (evangelic). The catholics are usually seen as much more conservative than protestants, regarding marriage of pastors, LGBTQ etc. The protestants here (I was baptized as one but left the church later) are pretty chill with all that.

So my question is: How do European Protestants and US evangelicals differ? Are the evangelicals really more radical than US catholics, or are they just the majority? Do temperate Christians exist in the US?

  • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
    5·
    1 day ago

    I can’t really speak for what it is like in Europe, but there’s basically three big buckets that US Christian religion falls into.

    • Catholic, was (might still be) the plurality of Christians in the US. Not terribly different than the European version. Some may focus a bit more on different points, but the high level is the same. Gay is a sin, no birth control, male priests only, drinking is acceptable, forgiveness tends to be prominent.
    • Protestant, this would be the Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc. The only thing they really have in common is that they are Catholic BUT one or two major differences. It depends on the specific organization, some take more hard line approaches, some are far more accepting. National bodies are a bit more loose than Catholicism, but still consistent. There’s a mix of reasonable and crazy people in this bucket.
    • Evangelicals are the totally unhinged group. Churches in this group are non-denominational, though some may have started as a Protestant sect. They may have loose ties to other churches, or be a mega church. While there is variation here as well, it tends in the more extreme direction. Biblical interpretation tends towards the more literal and cherry picked stories instead of the relative interpretation that traditional branches have reformed to use. Grift is super common in this section. Condemnation of non followers is also common instead of outreach and forgiveness. Young earth creationism is a common belief. This group started growing rapidly with the advent of televangelism in the 70s.