Editing Mainline Protestant (section)

=== Recent history ===
Mainline Protestants were a majority of Protestants in the United States until the mid-20th century. A dip in membership across all Christian denominations was more pronounced among mainline groups, with the result that mainline groups no longer comprise the majority.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Pew Research Center 2014 Religious Landscape Survey |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ |access-date=May 11, 2018 |website=pewforum.org}}</ref> In 2020, Public Religion Research Institute conducted a religious census, based on self-identification, finding that an estimated 16% of U.S. Americans identified as non-Hispanic white mainline Protestants, slightly outnumbering non-Hispanic white evangelical Protestants who were 14% of the American population.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 July 2021 |title=The 2020 Census of American Religion |url=https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/ |access-date=2021-07-08 |website=PRRI |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=16 July 2021 |title=Mainline Protestantism is America's phantom limb |url=https://news.yahoo.com/mainline-protestantism-americas-phantom-limb-095209232.html |access-date=2021-07-19 |website=news.yahoo.com |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2014, Pew Research completed and published the ''Religious Landscape Survey'' in which it was estimated that 14.7% of American adults identified as mainline Protestant, excluding historically Black and African American denominations, while 25.4% identified as evangelical Protestants, also excluding membership in historically Black denominations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics |url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/ |access-date=2021-07-08 |website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2025, Pew Research published an updated ''Religious Landscape Survey'', finding that 11% of American adults identified as mainline Protestant while 23% identified as evangelical Protestants.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religious Landscape Study |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/ |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}</ref>

Mainline churches share an active approach to social issues that often leads to cooperation in organizations such as the [[National Council of Churches]].{{Sfn | Wuthnow | Evans | 2002 | p = 4}} Because of their involvement with the [[ecumenical movement]], mainline churches are sometimes (especially outside the United States) given the alternative label of ecumenical Protestantism.{{Sfn | Hutcheson | 1981 | pp = 36-7}} These churches played a leading role in the [[Social Gospel]] movement and were active in social causes such as the [[civil rights movement]] and the [[feminist movement|women's movement]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Thomas |first=Oliver |year=2010 |title=Where have all the Protestants gone? |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20100301/column01_st.art.htm |access-date=October 3, 2016 |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |page=17A}}</ref> As a group, the mainline churches have maintained religious doctrine that stresses [[social justice]] and personal [[salvation]].<ref name="Chang" /> Members of mainline denominations have played leadership roles in politics, business, science, the arts, and education. They were involved in the founding of leading institutes of higher education.{{Sfn | McKinney | 1998 | pp =  57-66 }} Marsden argues that in the 1950s, "Mainline Protestant leaders were part of the liberal-moderate cultural mainstream, and their leading spokespersons were respected participants in the national conversation."{{Sfn | Marsden | 2014 | p = 99}}

Some mainline Protestant denominations have the highest proportion of graduate and post-graduate degrees of any other denomination in the United States.<ref name="Faith, Education and Income">{{cite news |last=Leonhardt |first=David |date=May 13, 2011 |title=Faith, Education and Income |url=https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/faith-education-and-income/ |access-date=May 24, 2016 |newspaper=The New York Times |department=Economix}}</ref> Some also include the highest proportion of those with some college education, such as the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] (76%),<ref name="Faith, Education and Income" /> the [[Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)]] (64%),<ref name="Faith, Education and Income" /> and the [[United Church of Christ]] (46%),{{sfnm |1a1=Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life |1y=2008a |1p=85 |2a1=Pew Research Center |2y=2015b |2p=133}} as well as most of the [[American upper class]].<ref name="Faith, Education and Income" /> compared with the nationwide average of 50%.<ref name="Faith, Education and Income" /> Episcopalians and Presbyterians also tend to be considerably wealthier<ref>{{cite news |last=Ayres |first=B. Drummond Jr. |date=April 28, 1981 |title=The Episcopalians: An American Elite with Roots Going Back to Jamestown |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/28/us/the-episcopalians-an-american-elite-with-roots-going-back-to-jamestown.html |access-date=May 21, 2016 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and better educated than most other religious groups,{{sfn|Allen|1975}} and they were disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of US business and law until the 1950s.{{Sfn | Hacker | 1957 | p = 1011}}

In the 1990s four of the US Supreme Court Justices were Mainline Protestants: [[Sandra Day O'Connor]], [[John Paul Stevens]], [[William Rehnquist]] and [[David Souter]].

From 1854 until at least 1964, Mainline Protestants and their descendants were heavily [[History of the United States Republican Party|Republican]].{{Sfn | Baltzell | 1964 | p = 9}} In recent decades, Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats.{{Sfn | Pew Research Center | 2015a | p = 11}}

From 1965 to 1988, mainline church membership declined from 31 million to 25 million, then fell to 21 million in 2005.{{Sfnm |1a1=Linder |1y=2009 |2a1=Noll |2y=1992 |2p=465}} While in 1970 the mainline churches claimed most Protestants and more than 30 percent of the population as members,{{Sfn | Hout | Greeley | Wilde | 2001 | p = }} today they are a minority among Protestants; in 2009, only 15 percent of Americans were adherents.<ref name="Barna" /> A [[Pew Forum]] statistic revealed the same share in 2014.<ref name="pew2014">{{cite web |date=May 12, 2015 |title=America's Changing Religious Landscape |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ |publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]: Religion & Public Life}}</ref>

==== Conservative factions ====
Recent efforts from [[Conservative Christianity|theological conservatives]] have resisted the liberal drift of Mainline churches.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hempel |first=Lynn M. |last2=Bartkowski |first2=John |last3=Matthews |first3=Todd |date=2012 |title=Trust in a "Fallen World": The Case of Protestant Theological Conservatism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41681809?seq=1 |journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=522–541 |issn=0021-8294}}</ref> Through social media, conservative factions within the Mainline like 'Operation Reconquista' have evangelized a conservative perspective to [[Generation Z]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Patrick |date=2023-11-08 |title=Meet the Zoomers’ Martin Luther |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/11/meet-zoomers-martin-luther-mainline-reformation-project-onl/ |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=Christianity Today |language=en-US}}</ref>