Posted on 01/31/2009 9:16:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Washington-- Want to be almost certain you'll have religious neighbors? Move to Mississippi. Prefer to be in the least religious state? Venture to Vermont.
A new Gallup Poll, based on more than 350,000 interviews, finds that the Magnolia State is the one where the most people 85% say yes when asked "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"
Less than half of Vermonters, meanwhile 42% answered that same question in the affirmative.
Joining Mississippi in the top "most religious" states are other notches in the Bible Belt: Alabama (82%), South Carolina (80%), Tennessee (79%), Louisiana (78%), and Arkansas (78%).
New England predominates in the top "least religious" states: Following Vermont are New Hampshire (46%), Maine (48%), Massachusetts (48%), Alaska (51%) and Washington (52%).
"Clearly, states in the South in particular, but also some states in the Southwest and Rocky Mountains have very religious residents and New England states in particular, coupled with states like Alaska and others, are irreligious," said Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of The Gallup Poll.
The reasons why, however, are far less clear, observers said. For example, some might attribute the religiosity of Mississippi to the high percentage of African-Americans long known for being comparatively highly religious who live there.
"Mississippi is still No. 1, even if we look only at whites," said Newport. "Whites in Mississippi are also very religious."
Overall, Gallup researchers found that 65% of all Americans said religion was important in their daily lives. The total sample of 355,334 U.S. adults, including respondents with land-line telephones and cellular phones, had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point. Some states had margins of error as high as plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Newport was surprised that one state Utah did not make the "most religious" list, given the state's large Mormon population.
"They apparently have two kinds of people in the state," he said. "They have the very religious and devout Mormon population but it also looks like they have a lot of nonreligious people."
Mark Silk, director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, said Gallup's findings reflect research conclusions from the upcoming American Religious Identification Survey, which he is working on with other scholars.
"New England is now slightly ahead of the Pacific Northwest in terms of the high rate of unchurched people," said Silk, co-author of One Nation, Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics.
Although evangelicalism may be making some inroads in Western states like Washington and Oregon, he attributes the predominance of New England states in the "least religious" category more other demographic trends in the Northeast.
"What we are finding is a considerable drop in New England in the Catholic population," said Silk, whose center is based in Hartford, Conn.
And it's a matter of them moving away from the church, he said, not the region. "Catholics are holding their own nationwide because of Latino immigration but, relatively speaking, there's little of that in New England."
Silk suspects some Catholics have left the church because of the Catholic sex abuse scandal that first erupted in Boston, which "kind of pushed some sort of relatively loose affiliation Catholics over the edge."
For his part, Newport said Catholics overall no longer are more religious than the average American - when it comes to stating the importance of religion or in attending church services but it's hard to specify exactly why New England states figure so prominently in the "least religious" states.
"They're about average and that's a change," he said. "It used to be you'd find Catholics significantly higher. I don't know to what degree that would affect what's going on in New England."
Alaska: 51%
Look, I have no agenda other than to look at the data. If the data tells me anything it is this — being religious does not necessarily mean being moral and vice versa.
Jesus Himself condemns the so called religious pharisees.
Therefore, one can hardly use the above stats as basis for arguing that America needs to be more religious. It depends on WHAT KIND of religiosity — CONSISTENT or INCONSISTENT.
I think we just have too many religious Americans who claim they believe in God but act as if they don’t in spite of their religious profession.
I’ll balance my question by making one observation, if you look at the stats, there are 34 states with 60% or over who are religious. That’s 68% of the country. You can’t simply look at Mississippi and make a generalized observation.
Also Wyoming (the most conservative state) 58% - virtually the same as liberal Kalifornia. Religious vs. secular doesn’t necessarily match conservative vs. liberal. There are plenty of religious leftists, and a lot of them are pretty nasty pieces of work (Muslims, Jeremiah Wrighters, Liberation Theologists, etc.)
Do you have to be told the real reason for the disparity in crime rates between Vermont and Mississippi?
I think this was your purpose all along, which is why you posted this thread.
To discredit Christian faith meanwhile like a true humanist, you’re ignoring the glaring racial component which has everything to do with the problems you allude to over and over , not Mississippi’s Christianity.
Quite the opposite, were Mississippi’s whites and a few blacks not as religious as they are the state would be even worse off.
What is it with freepers like you?
Have you never had any experience with faith?
Do you not know what it’s like to live in a sizable black community?
Educate yourself.
It must be a boring day at Darwin Central....give them all warm hugs
***I just googled it. Mississippi has the lowest family income, lowest quality of life. lowest quality of health care, education.****
Now you see why the Unofficial motto for the state of ARKANSAS has always been...”Thank GOD for Mississippi!”
Yes...lol....apparently seekandfind needs to do some more seeking and finding
or join the peace corps
where do these folks come from?
are they seminar agitprop types like Rush talks about
I live in Nashville but go home to Jackson Mississippi a lot. I could take seekandfind out to say Farish Street between Fortification and High at night and let him out to just walk around and he could have Mississippi Demographics Acclimation 101 lab study real fast.
should he survive, we could confer a diploma
i cannot believe how obtuse some freepers are
and even if S/F is melanin enriched then he better talk like David Banner and wear the right colors or he’s chopped salad.
now take me or S/F to say Woodstock Vermont at night and drop us off....our biggest danger would be slipping on the sidewalk in winter or being overwhelmed by freaks with Obama bumperstickers
So was that your point?
That religiuous blacks in Mississippi do not appear to be very moral?
Have fun with that.
**And it’s a matter of them moving away from the church, he said, not the region. “Catholics are holding their own nationwide because of Latino immigration but, relatively speaking, there’s little of that in New England.”**
The Cafeteria is closed and some Catholics don’t want to adhere to certain things.
**Silk suspects some Catholics have left the church because of the Catholic sex abuse scandal that first erupted in Boston, which “kind of pushed some sort of relatively loose affiliation Catholics over the edge.” **
Leaving because of the sex abuse scandals is false. These sexual abuses take part in all churches. Just because one teacher sexually abuses a child — does that mean that ALL teachers sexually abuse children. False thinking is what this article has!
Another thing to think about is that the Catholic Church has been the one and ONLY church through the ages to speak out against sex abuse, same-sex marriage, abortion, stem-cell reseatch, contraception, etc.
The Catholic Church is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Aanother thing to consider — once a person is baptized Catholic, unless they fill out lots of paperwork and have a hearing in front of a panel — they are still and always will be a Catholic.
actually you missed the point....the black community is responsible for the crime rate by and large
there are some black Christians but not at nearly the rate as whites
where do you live to be so ignorant of the South and black crime and Christianity?
or are you just playing ignorant in your Christian and southern bashing scheme of things?
I can’t comment on how these stats were developed.
what I can comment on is Vermont is no such heaven and yes,there are less than 700,000 people here.
We get lots of snow & some are still depending on dial up to connect w/the ‘net.
Burlington is a big college town but on the whole it’s fairly insular here and I think it takes a special kind of person to live north of Massatwoshits.
Good point.
In earlier days, the Congregationalists (now the UCC)became too identified with political power. They were like one of Europe's established churches, and you didn't get as much evangelical fervor as in other parts of the country.
Another thing about New England is you're never that far from cities, so you don't get the large rural areas that you do in other parts of the country. The urban influence is stronger, hence the region is less religious.
Now just why one of the most rural states in New England should be the most irreligious, I don't know. It may be that you have fewer Catholics in Vermont and they assimilated more to Protestant habits.
It also may have something to do with all the "flatlanders" who moved in from elsewhere. Rural Northern Vermont is more Methodist and Baptist than Congregationalist and may be more religious.
Or maybe where it's snowy and cold, people want to stay home on Sundays.
Want to be really sure? Move to Kiryas Joel!
why isn’t religiosity inversely correlated with crime rate ?
Interesting question given my posts on the Kiryas Joel thread yesterday.
ML/NJ
Perhaps “now the United Church of Christ”, but most assuredly not the nondenominational group known as the church of Christ.
when you are in the pit and no way out, you look for a hand to help you climb out. There is always One.
Poverty by the world’s standards is not poverty by God’s.
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