Bible belt

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The approximate extent of the Bible Belt, indicated in red

Religious affiliation in the U.S.

Bible Belt is an informal term for an area of the United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a dominant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is extremely high.

Much of the Bible Belt consists of the Southern United States. During the colonial period (1607–1776), the South was a stronghold of the Anglican church. Its transition into a stronghold of non-Anglican Protestantism occurred gradually over the next century, as a series of religious revival movements, many associated with the Baptist denomination, gained great popularity in the region.

The region is usually contrasted with mainstream Protestants and Catholics of the northeast, the religiously diverse Midwest and Great Lakes, the Mormon Corridor in Utah and southern Idaho, the Catholic-dominated "Rosary Belt" of south Texas–Louisiana–Florida,^{[citation needed]} and the relatively secular western United States. The percentage of non-religious people is the highest in the northwestern state of Washington at 25%, compared to the Bible Belt state of Alabama, where it is 6%.^[1] Also Mississippi has the highest number of Baptists at 55%.^[2]

The earliest known usage of the term "Bible Belt" was by American journalist and social commentator H.L. Mencken, who in 1924 wrote in the Chicago Daily Tribune: "The old game, I suspect, is beginning to play out in the Bible Belt."^[3]

Geography

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Although exact boundaries do not exist, it is generally considered to cover much of the area stretching from Texas in the southwest, north to most of Missouri, northeast to Virginia, and southeast to northern Florida.

Tweedie (1978) defines the Bible Belt in terms of the audience for religious television. He finds two belts, one more eastern that stretches from central Florida through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and into Virginia, and another that is more western, moving from central Texas to the Dakotas, but concentrated in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Mississippi. The Bible belt roughly includes those areas that were slave states before the American Civil War.^[4]

Notably absent from this belt are the areas of:

• St. Louis, Missouri (majority Roman Catholic and large Jewish population)
• Miami, Florida (a split between Roman Catholics and secular people)
• Austin, Texas (mostly a secular city; has the lowest church attendance rate in the entire South)
• South Texas (majority Roman Catholic)
• Houston, Texas (a religiously diverse city; most religiously diverse city in the South)
• New Orleans, Louisiana (majority Roman Catholic)
• Mobile, Alabama^[5] (majority Roman Catholic)
• Cajun Country Region (majority Roman Catholic^[6])

In terms of demographics, the belt can accurately be described as extending westward to include most of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, and perhaps even farther into areas of southern New Mexico settled by Texans. Additionally, the southern parts of Nebraska, Indiana, and Ohio are sometimes included.

Some figures, such as James Carville, have speculated that the belt may extend further than the geographic American South. He states that much of rural Pennsylvania, which he referred to as "Alabama without the blacks", may be an extension of this belt; for instance, the Pennsylvania Dutch have much in common politically with the Southern Baptists.

Buckle

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Several locations are occasionally referred to as the "Buckle of the Bible Belt":

• Greenville, South Carolina, home of Bob Jones University
• Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, home to several seminaries, including the Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University, Dallas Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (the largest Protestant seminary in the world), and Criswell College; Southern Methodist University; the conservative Catholic University of Dallas; and several of America's largest megachurches, including the Potter's House (pastored by T.D Jakes), Prestonwood Baptist (pastored by Jack Graham), and First Baptist Dallas (once, under the leadership of W.A. Criswell 1909–2002, the largest Protestant church in the world). See also J. Frank Norris.
• Nashville, Tennessee, home to the headquarters of many denominations, including the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Association of Free Will Baptists, and the United Methodist Church's Publishing House; the area is also referred to as the "Protestant Vatican".
• Memphis, Tennessee, home of Church of God in Christ and Bellevue Baptist Church, one of the largest in the Southern Baptist Convention.
• Dayton, Tennessee, site of the Scopes Trial and home of Bryan College
• Charlotte, North Carolina, home of Billy Graham, the Billy Graham Library, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the headquarters of African Methodist Episcopal Zion national and international offices, and the mother house of Charles Emanuel "Daddy" Grace's United House of Prayer for All People
• Cleveland, Tennessee, home of Lee University and the Church of God international offices
• Springfield, Missouri, home of the Assemblies of God and the Baptist Bible Fellowship
• Lynchburg, Virginia, home of Jerry Falwell's ministry and Liberty University
• Virginia Beach, Virginia, home of Regent University and The 700 Club with Pat Robertson
• Tulsa, Oklahoma, home of Oral Roberts University and the ministries of Kenneth Hagin and Billy James Hargis
• Abilene, Texas, home of Abilene Christian University (Churches of Christ), Hardin-Simmons University (Southern Baptist and Baptist General Convention of Texas), and McMurry University (United Methodist)
• Lubbock, Texas, which is said to have more churches per capita than anywhere else in the nation^[7]
• Portales, New Mexico, home to 39 Christian institutions

There are also several locations outside the Bible Belt that are centers of evangelical Christian activity, many of them are often called "exclaves of the Bible Belt".  They include Prescott, Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Wheaton, Illinois; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and parts of Southern California, particularly Orange County.

Political and cultural context

The term Bible Belt is used informally by journalists and by its detractors, who suggest that the region allows religion to influence politics, science, and education.

In 1950, President Harry Truman told Catholic leaders he wanted to send an ambassador to the Vatican. Truman said the leading Democrats in Congress approved, but they warned him, "it would defeat Democratic Senators and Congressmen in the Bible Belt."^[8]

In presidential elections, the Bible Belt states of Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas have voted for the Republican candidate in all elections since 1980. Virginia and North Carolina did not vote Democratic until they went for Barack Obama in the 2008 election.^[9] Prior to the 1960s the majority of these states generally voted for the Democratic candidate after the formation of the modern Democratic party. ^[10]

Outside the United States

In Australia, the term usually refers to tracts within individual cities, for example the north-western suburbs of Sydney focusing on Baulkham Hills and the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide focusing on Paradise, Modbury and Golden Grove, though there is also a section of south-eastern Queensland comprising the towns of Laidley, Gatton and Toowoomba which is referred to as the Bible Belt.^[11]

In Canada, the term is also sometimes used to describe several disparate regions which have a higher than average level of church attendance. These include the majority of rural southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, parts of southern Manitoba, the rural and more traditional parts of the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia and the Saint John River Valley of New Brunswick.^[12]

In China, Nanjing City is regarded as the area with the country's highest number of Christians since 1949. Amity Publishing House, a Christian publisher, is based in this city.^[13]

In Denmark, the area of northwestern Jutland is often mentioned as a Bible Belt. The region has a large number of members of the Lutheran movement called "Indre Mission" (English: "Inner Mission").

In Finland, the rural areas of Ostrobothnia and Southern Ostrobothnia are sometimes considered a Bible Belt.^[14]

In India, the north eastern states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and the hill districts of Manipur form a continuous Bible Belt. Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya are India's only Christian dominated states. In fact in Nagaland, Christians constitute 90.02% (2001 census) of the population, with 80% professing the Baptist faith and thereby earning the sobriquet of The most Baptist state in the world. The Bible belt has emerged as one of the major areas of the world that sends out missionaries, particularly to South Asia and South East Asia.^[15]

The Netherlands has a Bible Belt (Bijbelgordel) as well, stretching from Zeeland to Overijssel. Immigrants from this area to the U.S. formed the Christian Reformed Church in North America. See Bible Belt (Netherlands)

In New Zealand, Mount Roskill, Auckland, contains the highest number of churches per capita in the country, and is the home of several Christian political candidates.^[16]

In Northern Ireland, the region centered on the northern part of County Antrim is often referred to as Northern Ireland's Bible Belt. This is because the area is heavily Protestant with a large evangelical community. The MP for this constituency is Ian Paisley, a Free Presbyterian Reverend well known for his theological fundamentalism. The town of Ballymena, is the largest town in the constituency, is often referred to as the "buckle" of the Bible Belt.^[17]

In Norway, the Bible Belt covers the south-western coast from Agder to Møre og Romsdal. In these areas the conservative branch of the Church of Norway has a stronghold and the members usually associate themselves to Indremisjonen (Inner Mission). There are also numerous Pentecostals and members of the Free Churches, but these movements are also strongly represented in the rest of the country. The Bible Belt in Norway often reflects the support for the Christian Democratic Party or the Christian Unity Party.

In Sweden, there is a Bible Belt covering the area between the cities of Jönköping and Gothenburg, with a particular high concentration of non-conformists (Protestant congregations not affiliated with the Church of Sweden), especially Pentecostals and Congregationalists - and strong support for the Christian Democrats.^[18]

See also

• Belt regions of the United States
• Bootleggers and Baptists
• Born again (Christianity)
• Jesusland map
• Unchurched Belt

References

Further reading

• Randall Balmer; Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism Baylor University Press, 2004  
• Denman, Stan. "Political Playing for the Soul of the American South: Theater and the Maintenance of Cultural Hegemony in the American Bible Belt" Southern Quarterly (2004) v. 42, Spring, 64-72.
• Heatwole, C.A.  "The Bible Belt; a problem of regional definition" Journal of Geography (1978) 77; 50-5
• Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Knopf, 1997)
•  Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds. Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South (2005)
• Charles H. Lippy, ed. "Religion in South Carolina" (1993)
• George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 (1980).
• Jeffrey P. Moran; "The Scopes Trial and Southern Fundamentalism in Black and White: Race, Region, and Religion" Journal of Southern History. Volume: 70. Issue: 1. 2004. pp 95+.
• Chris C. Park; Sacred Worlds: An Introduction to Geography and Religion Routledge, 1994
• Randy J. Sparks. Religion in Mississippi University Press of Mississippi for the Mississippi Historical Society, . 2001. ISBN 1-57806-361-2.
• William A. Stacey and Anson Shupe; "Religious Values and Religiosity in the Textbook Adoption Controversy in Texas, 1981" Review of Religious Research, Vol. 25, 1984
• Turner, Elizabeth Hayes; Women, Culture and Community: Religion and Reform in Galveston 1880-1920, 1997.
• Tweedie, S.W. (1978) Viewing the Bible Belt. Journal of Popular Culture 11; 865-76
• John Mellencamp, "Jack and Diane" (1982): "Let the bible belt, come and save my soul."
• Nikki Sudden, Waiting On Egypt/The Bible Belt CD
• Travis Tritt, "Bible Belt" (1991): "Till you're gonna have to answer, To your heart in the Bible belt."