Everything There Is Big, Stereotypes Included

[white cloud]

“Texas! Amazing, right?” Gail Collins writes midway through her new book about the state. The reader who senses a touch of sarcasm would not be wrong. Texas is America’s most controversial state, and particularly since Gov. Rick Perry’s ill-fated bid for the Republican presidential nomination last year plenty of people have wanted to take it down a notch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/books/as-texas-goes-by-gail-collins.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120703

[johnsolaris]

1. the problem with Texas

Hi,

The problem with Texas is the same problem with the rest of the South & many Northern states. The Republicans are ruled by the
Religious Right & all of their philosophy is rooted in the bible. It seems at times as if the Catholic church is in charge: ie, There is a
war on women, little or no birth control, We know what is good for you so shut & enjoy what you have or we will put you in prisoner
of war camps.

No offense to Catholics, but with the Neocons, party philosophy is Rigid & not open to interpretation by the masses & only by those
in charge.

We must get out & work hard to defeat the Republican Horde. Volunteer at your local Democratic headquarters & spread the word
or Democrats will become a footnote in History.

[Melissa G]

3. The overlay on most of Texas is not Roman Catholic,

but Protestant in a Southern Baptist sort of way. Where are you from? Have you actually been to Texas?

[Ilsa]

7. It depends on where you are.

The northern half is more like the south's Bible Belt with lots of fundamentalists and other Protestants, but the southern half is very Catholic. I'm not certain what you were referring to by "overlay".

The Baptists I know have become more radical in their beliefs about contraception, family structure, feminism, and LGBT issues. Perry is a radicalized, fundamentalist Methodist, which I thought was a contradiction in terms.

I can remember a time when members of the Catholic Church voted Democratic almost exclusively until GOP ginned up abortion as a big moral issue.

(This post isn't intended to argue anything, just to clarify geographical differences covering a very large area.)

[Melissa G]

8. Political overlay

I agree about North Texas and for that matter West (except the border) and to some extent East Texas being way more Protestant than the South.
I agree about the Baptists becoming more progressive lately.
I agree about Perry's crazy Methodist oxymoron

I too, can easily remember when almost every part of Texas voted for Dems because we were a one party state with only Conservative Dems and Liberal Dem and the South in general was voting Dem because they were still mad at that Republican Abe Lincoln. Of course, our conservative Dems were Southern Dems which look a lot like the republicans in the rest of the county.

The political/ cultural overlay was something a friend of mine was talking about. He is a Methodist preacher's kid from Iowa. He says the cultural overlay around there is Lutheran -no matter what religion you are raised. He also says by the same filter- New York is Jewish and Texas is southern Baptist. He gave other examples.
I think Louisiana would be an example of a Catholic overlay.

So in that light, to clarifywhat I was posting..
Yes, in South Texas the population is significantly more Catholic, but the politics and culture are less so. WASP politics still have a disproportionate power and pervasive cultural overlay. They certainly did in the last century when I grew up in a Roman Catholic, Hispanic political family and culture in San Antonio. Lliving in Central Texas as I do now, I am less in touch with current South Texas culture. I still maintain from what we have at at a state level that the discourse, the values and the cultural political overlay are overall WASP/ Baptist, not Catholic.
I agree with Vogon Glory's post.

You should come have breakfast with us some time if you are close to Austin and we can go on about these and other things over coffee and tacos.

[Ilsa]

9. Oh man, I wish I could make it!

It's a bit too far for me for breakfast, but maybe another occasion!

[kentauros]

4. Nice post!

Hi, and welcome to both DU and the Texas group

I'd also like to thank you for posting in that thread by malaise about which state would secede first. It really gets tedious after a while trying to educate the rest of DU about why that would never happen, much less what kind of economic damage it would do to the remaining nation. I don't think I've had any success in swaying people's minds in that regard.

I feel that Paul Sadler is one of the most important races that need our help. It's the US Senate after all, yet I don't see too many people on the rest of DU talking about him, much less knowing who he is or what seat he's after. They're all worried about losing seats in other states and here we have a golden opportunity to get a Democrat back in the US Senate. However, we're Texas, so somehow they see us as a "lost cause". It's almost like they don't want us to become blue again...

[Vogon_Glory]

5. The Religious Right In Texas Is Protestant, Not Catholic

The Religious Right in Texas is much more Protestant--specifically Fundamentalist/Evangelical--than it is Catholic. That allows so many of the right-wingers to weasel out of the commitments implicit in the New Testament to help the poor and needy that I'll admit (however grudgingly) that Catholic organizations in Texas do provide, at least to some extent. That Protestant orientation also allows right-wing Texans to bask in the illusion that they are rich because they have G*d's favor and that the poor deserve to be poor because of their sin, their lack of faith or piety, and because of their laziness.

These are doctrines that have been kicked around on right-wing (again, mostly fundamentalist/evangelical) religious radio programs for at least the last fifty--sixty years in Texas, the rest of the former Confederacy, and in culturally-southern states like Missouri, Oklahoma, and much of Kansas and Indiana.

I do not deny that the Catholic hierarchy provides much of the money and the organization to the Radical Right's war on abortion and birth control, but the impetus is Protestant.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Not all of us are hicks.

I graduated from one junior college, one university (attended two) and one private college of law.

[DhhD]

6. Some of us are Christians who believe in the Separation

of Church and State because Moses taught and teaches this principle in the Old Testament. Moses called it Faith and Law; Church/ Faith and State/Law. In the New Testament, the risen Christ's personal apostle Paul, reminds us that we are to keep Law and Faith separate just as Moses taught. It makes me sick to drive down the street and see political signs all along the side of a protestant church. Who is the head of the Church? Christ or man running for a state or federal office. Many Christians have lost their way. Seems like some Churches have lost the Ten Commandments; Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shall have no other God before me (whose names appear on the political flags out front of His church). Thou shall not steal. And on and on.

It is like some Christians disregard God's words/the Bible.

The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are Law documents and say nothing about Faith.

We need for every voter in this State to vote.