Bible Belt: Encyclopedia II - Bible Belt - Political Cultural Context

Bible Belt - Political Cultural Context

The term Bible Belt is used mainly, but not uniquely, by detractors of or negative anti-Protestant commentators about a people or region that is said to be very religious, perhaps too religious. The term was coined in a January 1926 edition of American Mercury by H.L. Mencken. He described Jackson, Mississippi as "in the heart of the Bible and Lynching Belt." The term is not strictly regional—like flyover country or the more positive heartland—but is often used to describe the middle of the country in a way that diminishes that region. Politically, the term is often a shorthand to describe cultural conservatives whose beliefs in part stem from the Christian Bible, or those associated (by fact or perception) with the political Religious Right.

Some facts contradict, color or challenge the current use of the term:

1. The South is currently majority Protestant, with a significant proportion of African-American adherents.
2. The coastal southeast of Florida has a low religious attendance among Protestant adherents, like the industrial Midwest. Protestant attendance is highest in a "Bible Strip" in states from Texas through the Plains to the Dakotas.
3. Religious attendance is highest among Catholics, who often attend Mass daily, and geographically, Christian attendance is highest on the Coasts, which are majority Catholic, and along the Sun Belt, as well as in cities having large Catholic populations like Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans and New York.
4. The biggest change in 50 years in religious attendance is the significant drop in Protestant attendance in the industrial Midwest and the Northeast. Because the Midwest is majority Protestant, there is still a significant number of active Protestant adherents attending church in the region. Because the Northeast (or West Coast) is majority Catholic, the diminished number of Protestants attending church has left the bicoastal regions without the large Protestant churches. This reduction in Protestant churches, relative to the rest of the country especially the South, has created an anomalous situation whereby the center of gravity of American Protestantism has moved to the middle and south, politically and culturally cleaving these regions.
5. Finally, because Protestants place a greater emphasis on personal Bible study than Catholics do, it might be said that Protestantism is more associated with the terms Bible Belt or the derogatory "Bible-Thumpers" than is Catholicism. If attendance were the key context for this term, then in truth, the "Church Buckles" of Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York would be America's centers of religious adherents and attendance. But since the term is used to describe a religious people with a strong association with Bible literalism, with a deep connection to the South and Midwest, and with social and political beliefs that leftists negatively compare to provincialism and anti-intellectualism, its use is widespread. For their own part, some citizens of the Bible Belt have negative stereotypes of the coasts and their large urban areas, which they describe as atheistic, decadent, and centers of criminality. In truth, the two coasts are just as religious because of their majority Catholic population.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Political Cultural Context", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki