I ate Pascal's Wafer

Here's my best guess. When the nation was developing in the 1800's, the riffraff and what not moved out west in search of wealth and prosperity. They don't seem to have a long tradition of being overly religious since they seem to value money and adventure more than religion. The north was a center of industrial change, urbanization, and the like. Also, many immigrants found their way to the north, along with the freed slaves later on. With so many people in so many cultures coming to live together in the big cities, change and progress was imminent.

However, the south didn't have such change. For the most part the southern states relied heavily on agriculture. There were some industrial cities, but not nearly as many as up north. As someone else mentioned, church was also a big part of life. Weekly church services were a chance to bring different families together once a week to socialize and spend time with each other. Rural areas didn't have the activities that big cities have, so church was probably the best thing going for them at the time. Additionally, children did not usually stay in school until graduation and go on to earn a higher degree. Many children went to help their family on the farm when they got old enough to work, and dropped out of school as a result.

Such traditions were just passed on from parent to child over the years, and we are still seeing the vestige of this society in the south. I think things are slowly starting to change here, but there are still far too many people who never go far away from their small town and don't go on to pursue education beyond high school.

I realize this is a very simplistic view of the history, but hopefully you can all see what I'm saying here.

-Nick

daria

Makes sense, Nick, even if simplified. I never thought about the fact that there probably wasn't anything else to do in the way of social gatherings besides church. Having lived in a town with more churches than gas stations for ten years, it seems like something I should have noticed.

As for why peope would vonluntarily live in the south... the weather? I can't stand it, but I understand there are those who like it. There is also supposedly that southern hospitality thing going on; the jury's still out on whether or not that actually exists if you ask me, though. I know people sometimes like a slower pace of life, but I'm sure you can find that in any region, as long as you find a small enough town. Looks like weather is the best answer I can come up with. *shrug*

Opera Nut

I've lived in Texas all my life. Dallas, Houston and Austin are big enuf to have some alternative culture going on. However, I think N. Texas and Oklahoma are worse as far as being Bible thumpers than Houston. I was raised amongst what I call "reasonable Protestants" -- educated and it's more like a social club -- Whiskeypalians, Presbys, and some Methodists. Apparently in Oklahoma, they're all fundies, no reasonable liberal prots to be found. My BF had to leave Oklahoma cuz he is very educated and the idiot fundies literally drove him nuts. We compared notes on universities as well and the universities are better here in Texas. I have gone to Houston Community College, Univ of Houston, Trinity University and South Texas College of Law. He has gone to Oklahoma State and Tulsa Univ. He said Tulsa had a fundie physics department and they wouldn't let him write his thesis on black holes, in 1969, if you can believe it. So that destroyed his dreams of a career in nuclear physics. And Tulsa U. is supposedly Presbyterian. I was shocked.
Trinity is Presbyterian and I got an excellent education there. My girlfriends went to Austin College which is also Presby and they said it was very good too.


But we have plenty of crackpots down here.

Radcliffe Emerson

I've always had the impression we were smack in the heart of the bible belt here in Indiana.

Sure seems that way.

Albion

I know a college professor in Kansas who's received death threats for teaching evolution. She refers to Kansas a part of the bible belt.

Dargo

People living in large cities in the Bible belt tend to be a lot less religious than their counterparts in small towns.

AJ the greek

Nashville is a good 'center' choice due to the SBC, but the independants have theirs a little east, in Greenville SC. Bob Jones University. Might pull your geographic center east a little to average these out. Chattanooga?

Home of what is likely the largest homeschool pressin the country, and the most unusual "university" in the USA. Bob hosts major GOP candidates, even if they are Catholic(like Keyes and Buchanan) regularly and also bestows many honorary degrees, including to Ashcroft if I remember right.

The center of Baptist-ness is certainly in the South though, probably evenly divided between Greenville and Nashville.

I ate Pascal's Wafer

Hey Daria. I could be completely wrong, but my assertion makes sense to me. Hell, you lived in one of those towns. What else is there to do?

I think there are a number of reasons to live in the South, but it really depends on the person. Several of these people have lived in the same area their whole life, and it's just home to them. They are very slow to accept change, so moving to a larger city in another part of the country is not an option to them. They are used to living in the same small town knowing the same people, and they see no reason to change that.

Another could be the region itself. There are people that like the rolling hills of the Ozarks, or the swamps in Florida, the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico etc. They just like such a thing, and they don't think any other part of the country is better suited for them than the South.

Furthermore, many of the people who are attracted to the ideal of the South tend to be the religious type. They may not find a group with quite the same views as them elsewhere, and they may learn what it's like to be in the minority belief if they move to a more liberal part of the nation. Even the fundies in my old town are considered kookie by a good number of people, and it's still a strongly religious community.

Basically, I think there are several different reasons why people are attracted to the South. Of course people have varying reasons, from nostalgia to the scenery. Ah well, to each his own.

-Nick

daria

Have sex. No, seriously. At one point in my high school career, Georgia had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation and my county had the highest rate for the state.

I'm not sure what the stats are now, though. My little sister did her social science fair project on teen pregnancy a couple years back and apparently, it has gone down in our county.

[edited to remove a loose letter e]

[ November 10, 2002: Message edited by: daria ]</p>

I ate Pascal's Wafer

Whoa!! I'm glad those stats are going down. Just goes to show that there's not much to keep the average person in a small town occupied.

-Nick