I’m in Alabama (not born and raised here).
Why do you think we don’t have bingo or a lottery, of all things ? Beautiful racetrack was built and sat empty because of the Religious Right and the Religious Right is strong, so strong that they absorb the religious middle.
The religious middle still want to go to church. if they do join a church, they will follow the practices that church condones or they’re shamed in front of the congregation and/or tossed out.
The day I arrived here the first question I was asked, by many: what church have you joined. It’s a Sorority - follow the leader and his minions or your toast.
During the first Obama Election the Black Baptist Churches beat their parishioners about their head and body.....they were going to vote for Obama or they would be shamed and banished from the Church.
Many of Black Baptists are disillusioned but guess what, they will vote for him or lose their place in the church. They live for the church.
I read/heard somewhere that the black churches are fading fast .... submerged in hip-hop culture and outshouted by Media.
I will await further validation of that idea.