Mississippi Most Religious State, Vermont the Least (Gallup Poll of 350,000)

Digtriad ^ | Jan 30,2009

[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."

[SeekAndFind]

Poverty by the world’s standards is not poverty by God’s.

How does that square with this ?

Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the LORD will be happy. – Proverbs 16:20

To acquire wisdom is to love oneself; people who cherish understanding will prosper. – Proverbs 19:8 Hard work means prosperity; only fools idle away their time. – Proverbs 12:11

Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper and be satisfied. – Proverbs 13:4

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. – Proverbs 21:5

[Bunkasaurus]

Yep, without them colored folks Mississippi would be like Eden.
Heck, even better, it might even be like...Connecticut!

[wardaddy]

Yep, without them colored folks Mississippi would be like Eden.

hardly but a much lower crime and illegitimacy rate

[wardaddy]

I guess the fact that I am 6th generation Mississippian who lived there from 1959-1984 and who still has hundreds of family members there who attend church regularly makes me less an authority than a Yankee freeper with a grudge against Christianity and whatever?

It has been my observation that blacks in Mississippi in urban areas do not attend the same as whites, as I have stated elsewhere I believe rural blacks do but that could be old news.

You have cherry picked an article to push your thread that religious attendance and low crime are not synonymous by picking a state with the highest black population percentage in the nation.

And then you wonder why folks challenge your ignorance about the facts?

Why didn't you pick Utah?

Big church, low crime.

What's the difference tween Mississippi and Utah?

btw what sorta conservative are you who gets his kicks disparaging Christianity and our most diehard conservative voting bloc?

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

A 1990 study by the left-wing Progressive Policy Institute showed that, after controlling for single motherhood, the difference in black and white crime disappeared—Ann Coulter.

---

Coulter: MURDER SPREE BY PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS (Single Mothers/Stats)
AnnCoulter.Com ^ | January 14, 2009 | Ann Coulter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2164583/posts

[wardaddy]

--- HIGH CRIME RATES AND HIGH OUT OF WEDLOCK PREGNANCY RATES IN MISSISSIPPI ARE UNCORRELATED WITH RELIGIOUS PEOPLE ( BLACK OR WHITE ).

Mississippi does not have a high illegitimat5e white birth rate.

I did not say Mississiipi's black people are irreligous, I said they are less regular church goers than whites except in rural areas where they still cling to the old ways

Drive thru the ghetto on Sunday morning....see for your self. Drive by an old clapboard church in Sugar Ditch...it's likely to be crammed with bloack folks in their Sunday finest. Another note for you is that black churches are overwhlemingly female. If you went to church down here or knew anything about us outside what you've seen in Walter Hill movies you'd know this.

[wardaddy]

which explains why when I was a lad black parts of town were quite safe and the black family still existed male-headed

and more black males were faithful Christians

why on earth this has to be explained to a fellow conservative is amazing?

[Yudan]

The religiousness and immorality are what we, who actually have studied statistics, call “spurious correlation.”

I’ll give you an example. It’s like saying that increased alcohol consumption per capita from 1935-1990 (fact) and higher per capita sales of cigars from 1935-1990 (also fact) caused a decline in heart related death per capita from 1935-1990 (fact). See? Assuming causality based on those stats ignores a LOT of other data (more people exercise, the development of pharmaceutical intervention...)

So here we go: Evengelical Protestantism has always been widespread in the South. I would doubt the level of population percentage who adhere to that type of faith had changed much since Reconstruction.

To immorality: The true driver of crime rate statistic that drives the “immorality” is the out-of wedlock birthrate and the lack of male role models. The destruction of the family.

This is the Great Society in action. Thank you to Lyndon Baines “We’ll have these n****rs voting Democrat for the next 300 years” Johnson.

Here’s your equation, S/F:
1. Welfare has destroyed not just the black family, but the family dynamic in much of the lower income strata more generally by incentivizing immoral behavior through increased government handouts per child, hence increased illegitimacy, and one-parent homes.
2. Male children without a strong positive male role model tend to make poor decisions, which often includes irresponsible behavior and criminal activity. Bitterness, and the desire to achieve status quickly - like drug trafficking....which is HIGHLY profitable until you get caught, apparently. Guys who flash lots of cash are able to get lots of women....there’s a vicious cycle here...I refer you to ANY rap video.
3. Mississippi has a large black population comparatively, but also a high level of poverty overall irregardless of race. The land doesn’t have a high population density because the soil in much of the state is ill-suited for much other than agriculture - hence it never invited much industrial development, post civil war. You see, the money never really came after the agrarian economy died with reconstruction....

See where I’m going with all this?

One really has nothing to do with the other, religion and crime....

So don’t be a simp and assume causation or even correlation.

[Dionysius]

It’s the “D” word, the most sacred in the Democrat lexicon — Diversity!

[dixiechick2000]

SeekAndFind, I don't have much to add to wardaddy's and Yudan's posts except to point out that you can google and yahoo all you want, but you won't see the real truth unless you've experienced it. Yudan, wardaddy, and I have experienced Mississippi personally for many, many years.

I do want to say that Mississippi is not one of the most generous wrt charity, it is THE most generous, despite low incomes.

Too, while there may be a high out of wedlock pregnancy rate, this is primarily because they don't compound their mistake by having an abortion. There is only one abortion clinic in Mississippi, and it's been in dire straits for years. The day that they go belly-up can't come soon enough for me.

Heck...Mississippi even has a pro-life license plate.

I suspect there are many other states with an out of wedlock pregnancy rate as high, or higher, than Mississippi, but they clean up their mistakes by killing their unborn babies.