Featured The difference between unions and associations of Christian Baptists.

We have so many Baptist groups in the United States that it is complex to compare and contrast them. I have a list that I published years ago here -- Ministry and Music - Seeking the Old Paths: Another outline of Baptists in the US. It needs updating, but perhaps could be helpful. I might note, first, that in the U.S. our groups tend to prefer the words "association" or "convention" over "union".

The groups vary from very conservative to very liberal. Some are loose, in that you could believe almost anything and still be a member. Others are strict, and would exclude churches which violate the articles of faith and/or constitution.

I am not sure that any groups, as a group, require head coverings. There are some local churches which hold this belief and practice, but would be a small minority in the United States.

A lot of variation here. Some church covenants require abstinence from alcohol as a beverage, as well as abstaining from participation in any form of the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages.

Not sure there are any that deny it, but perhaps some discourage it.

 

@Strannik, 30 years ago, I married an ethnic Russian girl from Tashkent. She and her family were/are EC-B. I have served as my local church's liaison to the EC-B community. Due to health reasons, I am no longer as active as I once was. Early on, we translated the Unregistered EC-B Statement of Faith. So, I am familiar with the EC-B doctrine.
I'll try to answer your questions.

Please keep in mind, here in the United States the various Baptist organizations are not as tightly bound together as the Brotherhood of the EC-B. As one leader once said, "We Baptists are bound together by a rope of sand."

1. As Brother Vaughn wrote the various orgs are all over the map in terms of strictness in social and theological life.
2. Yes, though again as noted this is more or less left up to the individual and the local churches.
3. For the most part, American Baptists hold to a position of total abstention from the beverage use of alcohol. This is one of the reasons why Baptist churches use unfermented grape juice and not wine for the Lord's Supper commemoration.
4. The history of Anglo-American Baptists is different from that of the Continental and Slavic Baptists. So, we have few problems with participation in the political process or law enforcement.

 

The following thread gives links to many U.S. Baptist denominational groups. It is quite old, so you probably will find some of the links no longer work. Hope this helps.
Denominational Sites

 

This may vary according to the criteria used to count them, but over fifty, in my opinion.

 

The very best categorization of Baptists in the U.S. has been done by Albert W. Wardin. He understands their historical, doctrinal, geographical, and other connections and divides them thusly. His most recent book is The Twelve Baptist Tribes in the USA: A Historical and Statistical Analysis, where he sorts them into twelve basic groupings:

1. Ecumenical Mainline
2. National (African-American)
3. Conservative Evangelical (Northern)
4. Fundamental (Northern)
5. Conservative Evangelical (Southern)
6. Fundamental (Southern)
7. Landmark
8. General/Free Will
9. Old-Time
10. Primitivists
11. Progressive Primitive
12. Neo-Calvinist

Within these twelve tribes, Wardin discusses 53 Baptist bodies, large and small -- from the (at that time, 2007) 42,723 churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to the historically significant General Six-Principle Baptists, at the time reduced to one church.

As an aside, and of possible interest to you, he is author of Gottfried F. Alf: Pioneer of the Baptist Movement in Poland. If I remember correctly, Brother Wardin is a descendant of Gottfried Alf.

 

No, those are Unitarians. The Universalists believe that God's redemption is for every person who ever lives. No one will be lost. All will be saved.

Many Universalists are also Unitarians, but that is not the case of the Primitive Baptist Universalists.

 

Hoping the translator got these right.

To some extent moral and theological disagreements, and to some extent stubbornness and pride.

I expect coming persecution will bring us (at least conservative Baptists) closer together. We have had plenty of freedom to pursue our own devices.

Yes, that happens sometimes, but here we are more prone to divide that unite. There is often a mentality that you must choose one group or another, and that you should not cooperate across those lines.