What biased broadbrush. It is those churches which are more like Rome with her infant baptism that are most liberal, and while the South is the strongest manifest area of conservative committed Christianity. If only the whole country was more like the area that you say shifted to the social gospel via the baptist movement.
• 10% of Evangelical Protestants reside in the NE, 23% in the Midwest, 50% in the South, and 17% in the West. Catholics: 29% NE, 24% Midwest, 24% in the South, 23% in the West. “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,” Pew Research Center, 2007. http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons#
• he states with the most frequent churchgoers were Mississippi, Alabama, S. Carolina, Louisiana, Utah Tennessee, Arkansas, N. Carolina, Georgia, then Texas. The states with the most infrequent churchgoers were Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Hawaii, Oregon, Alaska, then Washington. http://www.gallup.com/poll/125999/mississippians-go-church-most-vermonters-least.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/22579/church-attendance-lowest-new-england-highest-south.aspx
73% of the populations of Charlotte and Shreveport held scripture in high regard, versus only 27% of the residents of Providence, Rhode Island [the most Catholic state] and San Francisco [the most homosexual large city]. ^
The lowest percentages of self-identified Christians inhabited the following markets: San Francisco (68%), Portland, Oregon (71%), Portland, Maine (72%), Seattle (73%), Sacramento (73%), New York (73%), San Diego (75%), Los Angeles (75%), Boston (76%), Phoenix (78%), Miami (78%), Las Vegas (78%), and Denver (78%). Even in these cities, however, roughly three out of every four residents align with Christianity. ^
The highest percentage of souls who tended toward being atheist or agnostic were in Portland, Maine (19%), Seattle (19%), Portland, Oregon (16%), Sacramento (16%), and Spokane (16%)
Commitment to evangelism (agree strongly that a person has a responsibility to share their beliefs with others) saw the greatest percentage of endorsement by residents of Birmingham (64%) and Charlotte (54%), in contrast to residents of Providence (14%) and Boston (17%).
(See HERE for a table on Religious-Political relations. And HERE for correlations between faith, ideology, politics, environment, money.) And HERE for supplementary compilation of stats on moral positions related to numerical impact, and Whites, Latinos and African Americans.
Since when does church attendance equal faith? If we go back half a century the pews were full in liberal mainline protestant denominations throughout the northeast. Very few were actual believers, as evidenced by how few of their children and grandchildren remain in the church and as evidenced by their leftist theology. I wouldn’t get too excited about southern church attendance.