Baptists As A Percentage Of All Residents, 2005

[Leopolds Ghost]

Forget fundamentalism, let's get scarily specific.



"Southern Conservatism" has become almost uniformly associated with the post-20th Century
Baptist Church -- "Anti-Bolshevic", "anti-equality of outcome" -- in particular, the SBC.
There are other conservative areas -- Shenandoah Valley, Central PA, Colorado Springs --
but the pattern of "religious conservatism" is clearly established by the largest "evengelical"
denomination. It is time to stop lecturing Christians (or even all evangelicals) and ask
specific denominations to answer for their pastors' (even black pastors) largely neo-conservative
policies and practices, which go against the history of the Baptist Church.

Certainly liberal church leaders have to answer for their beliefs all the time, and are
frequently fired for it when wealthy parishioners raise a stink. The rich want to control
the churches, which they use as propaganda outlets for their employees. Separation of Church
and State protects religion from the aristocracy that controls the levers of state.

Shortly before the Civil War, and especially during the turn of the century union movement,
Southern elites set up new branches of existing denominations to actively promote various
forms of state repression. This is not much different from the establishment churches
that persecuted Baptists in Europe, back when they were considered a pacifist, separatist,
peasant church.

It's time for liberals in those denominations to take back their heritage -- the Baptist
church was traditionally a church that believed in justice for the poor. Anti-yankee sentiment
and "anti-atheist leftist urban elite" faux-populist propaganda have twisted it into the SBC
(which disowned Jimmy Carter) and other organized, pro-military industrial Baptist
spin offs like you have in places like Colo. Springs. Frequently these spin-off evangelical
churches that glorify militarism and preach right-wing economics from the pulpit are
associated with military towns -- a discipleship of Manifest Destiny and Empire.

If you think this is a new phenom, it is worth noting that MLK considered leaving
the Baptist Church because of this. But he decided to stay and fight the battle from within.

[dailykoff]

1. I think it's more than that.

For example in southern California there are a lot more Baptist churches, schools, and even colleges than "none reported."

[HereSince1628]

2. This figure is for churches per county and you are right S.Cal has many

per denomination.



But number of churches (which are buildings) isn't a perfect measure of demographics for adherents (which are people). Certainly having a church building makes a denomination "visible" in a community.

This just makes me wonder about Californians preference for congregation size.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. there are pockets of counties in the Southeast w/none reported too,

I refuse to believe there is a single county in the southeastern US without at least one Baptist church. and I know for a fact there are Baptist churches in New England.

[NutmegYankee]

9. New England shows 0.1 to 10 %.

I think some people didn't notice the faint yellow versus the white.

[Clark2008]

4. Wow... a new and creative (if inaccurate) way to South-bash on DU!

:eyes:

First, not all Baptists are Southern Baptists and not all Baptists are fundies. In fact, it's the Presbyterians and Methodists who started the fundamentalist trend. Ask the pResident... he's allegedly a Methodist, not a Southern Baptist.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. I didn't say that. I said it's interesting how Baptist Church is directly correlated with the South.

This either explains why the Baptist Church (including many black baptist churches, as MLK found out) has gone from one of the most liberal denominations in America to one of the most conservative, or else it helps explain why the South has done so. Why should the Baptist church be so tied up with the South??

[Solar_Power]

5. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are Baptists

[Occam Bandage]

6. Clearly the problem is insufficient Catholics.

Catholics believe in social justice, etc., etc. Just as valid an argument as yours.

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. What's up with the Methodists?

Combine the Catholic (blue areas) with the Baptist (red areas) map,

and the Methodists almost perfectly fill in the remaining red areas!