12/17/2023 0 Comments Bible beltAfter the North more-or-less gave up, the Southerners had a counter-Reconstruction that they called "Redemption", and evangelicalism became dominant there. The churches were the main institution that the Northerners did not control in Reconstruction, and they helped develop the South's "Lost Cause" mythology. In his chapter "Gods and Missions", he describes the rise of the Southern "Private Protestant" evangelical churches after the US Civil War. The differences continue to persist, as reflected in the divide between "red states" and "blue states". Later settlers often moved to areas that they would be the most culturally compatible with, making the cultural differences persist. Most of them are the result of being settled by different groups of settlers, groups that took their customs and lifestyles and ideologies with them. The Louisiana Creationism Act is one example of Christian bias in the Bible Belt.Īn interesting look at the history of North America is American Nations, "A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America", by Colin Woodard. The term Bible Belt is used by it's critics to suggest that the religious influences the politics and education of the region. Rich and powerful people did not even have to follow all of that. Morality involved sexual fidelity for women and obedience for women and children. Believers were expected to believe the Bible as those preachers hired by oppressors interpreted it however unreasonable that may be. The Christian message became that slave owners could handle their property as they liked, that white men ruled while slaves, women, Native American and other non-whites should be obedient.Ĭhristian teachings about social justice were ignored while instead the rich gave money to religious organisations and the rest were required to obey those over them without question. Those who owned slaves or profited from other people’s suffering in different ways hired only religious leaders who taught what the oppressors liked. The part of the Bible Belt where Catholicism is strong is called the Rosary Belt. Maryland became a refuge for British Catholics though Catholics are not the majority there today. Others at the time respected these slave owners and thought they were God-fearing. Slave owners in former slave states preferred to devastate their native land rather than give up owning fellow human beings like cats and dogs. The Bible Belt includes the areas where slavery was very firmly established before the American Civil War.
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