Including my own, when I attended. I still find the term mainstream a bit problematic though; pre-trib rapture is a pretty common belief now that evangelicalism is so popular. There is more historical precedent and biblical foundation for the traditional belief, but in this case I find it difficult to see this as anything other than ‘old BS vs. new BS’, especially given the departure from traditional Jewish beliefs on the subject (and their own lack of basis in reality).
And here I was thinking that 40% of Florida’s population was supposed to be retired Jewish people from New York. So much for stereotypes.
I think that’s a very good way of thinking of it.
The Baha’i are still being vigorously oppressed in Islamic countries, though, whereas very few Christian countries still persecute Unitarian-Universalists.
Baha’i make good neighbors, as do the Nizari Ismaili Shia.
Mormonism has some historic Christian roots, but its core theology is pretty radically different from Christianity; it’s arguably farther away than Unitarianism is (at least, the original UU beliefs, as opposed to the current “even that God business is optional” part.)
Gnosticism isn’t Christian at all - the Abrahamic religions have their differences, but “There’s one God, the creator, and he’s good” is something you can’t reject and still be part of those religions, as opposed to heresy or some other religion.
The Copts are primarily a language/ethnic subset of the orthodox tradition, though they’ve got some differences of opinion about the exact nature of Jesus’s divinity that used to get people really upset but sound a lot like arguments on how many angels can dance with a pinhead.
Quakerism’s an approach to practice, not a set of dogma; the origins are Christian, but you don’t have to believe anything specific to be Quaker. It’s not uncommon for meetings to have a few Buddhists around, and the meeting I went to when I lived in New Jersey had some Jewish members and some people who’d joined us because the Unitarians were just too structured and dogmatic 
Since I personally know all manner of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Pagans, etc. (in addition to the Christians, Jews, and non-theists), I’m always surprised by what a tiny (fraction of a) percent the 2nd place consists of.
Sikhs are somewhat well-known in America, partly because they wear turbans, and partly because they have a history of involvement with the British Army. Doesn’t stop them from occasionally being attacked by anti-Muslim bigots, but nobody said bigots were very bright.
I had a high school teacher back in the 70s who was a Baha’i, and there was a certain amount of hippie interest in the religion because of their commitment to universal peace and tolerance. My current Baha’i friends are Americans who found it that way as well. An Iranian coworker in the 80s, who was nominally Muslim, said she had Baha’i relatives, and they’d suffered a lot of persecution after the revolution, because Islam considered them to be heretics who’d rejected Islam, rather than older religions like Judaism and Christianity that hadn’t gotten around to accepting Muhammad yet.
Here in Northern California, most of the Buddhists are from Asian immigrant communities (some of whom have been here since the Gold Rush, not just the newer folks.) The Buddhism I see among European-ancestry Americans includes people influenced by the Beat Generation (with Zen master D.T. Suzuki, and Kerouac and Watts), as well as followers of the Dalai Lama and some other meditation schools. Many of the followers are deeply spiritual in the traditional senses, as well as others who are just the new-agey tourists somebody was complaining about, who call themselves Buddhist because they like prayer flags along with their crystals.
Who gets to decide that, though? Personally, I don’t trust anyone who says that Mormons aren’t Christians.
You’ve chosen some interesting points to draw dividing lines on. Particularly since many mainstream Christians would balk (at best) if they knew the Quaker approach to the Bible vs. the leading of the Holy Spirit. Whereas the main “offense” of Mormonism from a historical dogma sense (i.e. Jesus isn’t god) are quite common in Christianity historically.
Considering Gnosticism is a sect of Christianity old enough to have been maligned by many authors of the accepted canon of the New Testament and that Christianity likely started as a mystery cult (not unlike Gnosticism but probably not actually Gnostic), I’m a little irritated by the statement that Gnostics are de facto not-Christian.
Getting back to my original question, who gets to decide?
Are you speaking as a Christian, a Mormon, or an outsider? Ecumenicalism is, after all, an acquired taste.
Former Fundamentalist Charismatic Evangelical Protestant (not a denomination, just a string of things my family was). Grew up thinking that basically anyone who wasn’t Fundamentalist Charismatic Evangelical Protestant wasn’t really Christian. Especially Catholics and Mormons. God might let the occasional confused Catholic into heaven but that was the extent of his tolerance of anyone past Baptist. And while the Baptists were definitely going to heaven, they were going to get a stern tongue lashing for rejecting the Holy Spirit.
Now I’m a Discordian and don’t really have much patience for Christians saying other Christians aren’t really Christian. 
ETA: In case it isn’t clear, I am not a type of Christian at all anymore. I went from being very devout to being a well-educated heretic to not being at all.
Phuck. That sucks. I mean really, phuck. Religion is killing people.
Its bogus to designate Christianity as one religion, there are so many sects, literally hundreds. Some are fairly similar, some pretty far out there!
No one is saying Christianity is one religion. What I am asking is who gets to decide what sects are Christian and what sects aren’t.
Both @Lola and @Ignatius are making fair arguments/asking fair questions.
I regularly see people who espouse Christianity as their religion say (when they disagree with them) that other Christians aren’t “real” Christians. They have very different belief systems, and are only joined in the idea that “Jesus is the son of God and our savior”. Other than that, they may as well be wholly different religions. They even follow different rules. So it is fair to ask, “Why do all these people, espousing different ways to honor their God get to claim they’re all the same?”
Ignatius is fair to say that no one Christian group should hold dominance over the others. For example, the Catholic Church is still the largest. That Church’s size is actually one of the reasons we have separation of Church and State in the U.S. - fear that any major Church should try to dominate members of a lesser one. So it is fair to ask, “If we’re divvying up Christians, who gets to be one?”
The truth is that it’s a hard nut to crack because people want it both ways. They want to be seen as the “correct” version of their religion, and at the same time they want the numbers associated with including all denominations of the religion. (The more the merrier um… more powerful.)
If you look at the Catholic Church in the U.S. versus different countries, I think it gives a better picture of how observantly religious some countries are compared to the U.S. The numbers on wiki are from the CIA factbook and are percentage population.
The U.S. is 23.9% Catholic, and the Catholic Church is the largest church in the U.S.
Canada, meanwhile has a 38.7% Catholic population.
Mexico is 82.7%.
Tell me again about how religious we are.
My personal experience at the Baha’i temple in Chicago was to love the architecture and the setting (I really think this is one of the great buildings in the Chicago area to visit, which is saying a lot considering how many greats are in the Chicago area) but the people were friendly too. My wife and I started getting a little bit of a conversion effort thrown our way, but I think that’s more because we stuck around for almost 90 minutes and so we started to look like potentials (when we declined, the Baha’i faithful were super nice and polite about it).
I research on of the states and found that the report is not accurate. Florida Religion
The population of Florida has quite a lower religious population than the average state. About 39% of the state population identifies as religious, compared to the national average of 49%. Out of the 39%, about 14% identify as members of the Catholic Church, making it the largest denomination in the state of Florida. The next largest denomination in the state of Florida is the Baptist Church, making up 9% of the population. All the other Christian denominations make up about 14% of the population. Those who identify as Jewish, Islamic, or Eastern religions only make up 2% of the population. The demographics by race also supports my claim that the information provided within the report is faulty at best. Gathered through the US Census…
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