The New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine scored the lowest in the nation, with only 42 percent of Vermont residents – or less than half the percentage of those in Mississippi – answering yes.
The other “secular strip” can be found in the West, where Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Nevada all scored in the bottom 10 states for affirming religion’s importance in daily life.
Sadly not surprising.
Polls show, that most polls are worthless data!
Is there a correlation between how religious the people of a state say they are and other measures of morality? For example, in the more religious states are the following found? lower crime rates, fewer divorces, lower rates of child abuse, lower abortion rates, less teenage pregnancy, less homosexuality, etc.
It would be interesting to find out if there is any correlation.
Remember the country’s county map voting for DIMRATS in a recent election . . . correlated with crime stats . . .
look for something similar vis a vis authentic Christianity practiced earnestly.
PING!
Something is telling me to ping you (I don’t know what it is).
Colorado comes up relatively secular, which certainly jibes with my experience. While I know a few people at work who attend church, neither I nor any of my friends do so.
South Carolina Ping
Add me to the list. / Remove me from the list.
Keep in mind there is religion and then there is religion.
If you asked Nancy Pelosi this question, I’m sure she’d answer yes.
But, then, so would Billy Graham.
World of difference.
I don’t buy that Importance of Religion chart, it ranks New Jersey as 60 and Florida as 65. Well, Florida is much further down the religious rabbit’s hole than New Jersey ever was. Between the holy-rollers and the Scientologists who make their home here in Florida you can’t spit without hitting someone who is convinced they know better than you how you should live your life. I rank Florida a cool 75 on the religious Richter-scale.
"The fool says in his heart, There is no God."
This map shows something that I’ve brought up before - the significant differences in the Western and Southern versions of conservatism. Red states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, and Alaska are among the least religious, as are the until-recently red states Nevada and Colorado. I think the GOP’s focus on “moral” issues and pandering to the religious right, in addition to abandoning economic conservatism, is what is causing us to lose this region. We’ve lost Nevada and Colorado, with Montana and Arizona slated to be next. I believe this has also hurt the party in the Pacific Northwest and northern New England, where many anti-tax and pro-gun sentiments are still alive and well. There’s no reason for us to get wiped out in Oregon or Washington, let alone New Hampshire. Dropping the focus on religious “issues” is the key to reversing the trend of becoming a regional, losing party.
Not surprising about MA. Don’t know about any other religions, but many Catholics here have this attitude that religion is only for Sundays at Church. It’s considered ‘not classy’ to discuss it at any other time. That’s what the folks in ‘Jesusland’ do, don’t you know.
It looks like a whole lot of evangelizing needs to be done right here in the US...no surprise there.