SULPHUR

I know some very good people that are lutherians .They are caring and understanding of other religions .They are non juddgemental and accept human weakness. Why would anyone compare them to calvanists?

Beetle

Theologically, Lutheranism tends to be very close to Reformed/Calvinism (especially the more conservative Missouri and Wisconsin synods). Lutherans may deny that up and down, but they're very similar (I was a calvinist who attended a Lutheran church for a while). They share almost everything: salvation by grace, lack of free will, Bible as the word of God, basically everything in Calvinism except "double predestination" (the idea that some people are predestined for hell) and a slightly different view of sacraments.

All of that, however won't tell you if the individuals in a Lutheran (or calvinist) church will be judgemental or intolerant of human weakness. I've know Lutherans who were judgemental, and others who were really nice to deal with. Same with Calvinists. It all depends on the individual.

But as groups, they will both sign off on the idea that if you don't sign off on accepting Jesus, you're roasting for eternity.

Viti

My husband's family are German Lutherans and we were married in a Lutheran church. This particular one was fairly liberal...though most have "traditional" services and "contemporary" services. Lutheran also carries over some parts of Catholicism like infant baptism and confirmation at around age 12.

SULPHUR

The ones I talked to were finnish and had traditional protestant view of religion.Maybe thats why there is difference between an australian and american baptist?

Shake

During my time as a Lutheran (ELCA, not MO Synod), we had 1st Communion in grade 5, and confirmation was a 2-school year process, done in 7th & 8th grades. High school aged kids could attend the youth group meetings (I'd hesitate to call them 'classes') or any of the adult classes, if anything. I think they knew that many high schoolers started working or got otherwise involved with school activities that would limit their amount of available time.