• FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            5 days ago

            I don’t know what the person you’re talking with is talking about, Protestantism is way broader than those 4 categories. In the US there’s 3 big categories of Protestants: Mainline (including Baptists and Southern Baptists which sometimes are counted as a separate category), Evangelicals, and Pentecostals. Mainline Protestantism has dropped off a bit in the 21st century (since mid 20th century really) in favor of the other two. Think old High Church Protestants, First Reformed style, being replaced by Joel Osteen style congregations (obviously this is a simplification).

            There’s non-trinitarian Christians too, such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, but they are usually treated as a bit of a separate category from Protestants. Then there’s the Orthodox Churches which aren’t Protestant but sometimes get included in the same category because they’re not Roman Catholics. Then there’s some nuance about Coptic Christians and some other Eastern groups that I don’t know enough about to speak on.

            The actual number of denominations of Protestant churches is in the 10s of thousands.