Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the southeastern and south-central United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average.
The Bible Belt consists of much of the Southern United States extending west into Texas and Oklahoma. During the colonial period (1607–1776), the South was a stronghold of the Anglican church. Its transition to 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 the mainline Protestantism and Catholicism of the northeastern United States, the religiously diverse Midwest and Great Lakes, the Mormon Corridor in Utah and southern Idaho, and the relatively secular western United States. The percentage of non-religious people is the highest in the northeastern state of Vermont at 34%, compared to the Bible Belt state of Alabama, where it is 6%.[1] Mississippi has the highest number of Baptists, at 55%.[1]
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."[2] Mencken claimed the term as his invention in 1927.[3]
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The name "Bible Belt" has been applied historically to the South and parts of the Midwest, but is more commonly identified with the South. In a 1961 study, Wilbur Zielinski delineated the region as the area in which Baptist denominations are the predominant religious affiliation. The region thus defined included most of the Southern United States, including most of Texas and Oklahoma in the southwest, and in the states south of the Ohio River, and extending east to include central West Virginia, Virginia south of Northern Virginia, and parts of Maryland. In addition, the Bible Belt covers parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. A 1978 study by Charles Heatwole identified the Bible Belt as the region dominated by 24 fundamentalist Protestant denominations, corresponding to essentially the same area mapped by Zielinski.[4]
Tweedie (1978)[5] 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, and concentrated in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Mississippi.
Several locations are occasionally referred to as "the Buckle of the Bible Belt":
New Orleans, a very culturally tolerant and relatively hedonistic city in the Bible Belt is sometimes referred to as the navel just above the belt.
Virginia Beach Virginia, while not usually considered a buckle of the Bible Belt, is considered by many to be, along with Lynchburg, the eastern border. This is the headquarters of Pat Robertson and CBN as well as the location of Regent University.
The term Bible Belt is used informally by journalists and by its detractors, who suggest that religious conservatives allow their religion to influence politics, science, and education. There has been research that links evangelical Protestantism with social conservatism.[11] 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."[12]
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. Other Bible Belt states have voted for the Republican presidential candidate in the majority of elections since 1980, but have gone to the Democratic candidate either once or twice since then.
Some have drawn attention to the Bible belt's inaccurate self-image as a bastion of American Christian morals. In fact, it is in these region, and among evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, that many of America's social problems are most exacerbated. Children born to fundamentalists have been consistently found to perform below average in scholastic situations and on standardized tests, and are more likely to drop out of school than others. States with high fundamentalist populations have a much higher frequency of teen sexual activity. Additionally, adults who profess fundamentalist faith are less likely to vote, have higher divorce rates, and lower vocabulary test scores, than the overall population. One study conducted by Barna found that the divorce rate was 29% among Baptists, compared to only 23% among more liberal Presbyterians, and 21% among the irreligious. Another study taken by the Pew Research Center found that, while about 27% of all Americans were graduates of college, only 8 - 13% of members of most Pentecostal groups were.
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. In Tasmania, the North-Western portion of the state is regarded in this context.[13]
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 some rural areas of the Prairies, 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.[14]
The Biobío and the Araucanía regions are the areas with the most evangelical churches in the country.
In China, Nanjing 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.[15]
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 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.[16]
In the Netherlands, De Bijbelgordel stretches from the provinces of Zeeland to Overijssel. It was essentially the border between Protestant and Catholic part of Netherlands after the Protestant Reformation (around 1560). The Dutch Bible Belt developed more explicitly in the 19th century. In the Bijbelgordel, the popular SGP favors a theocracy, and women denied full party membership and the ability to be a political representative. Immigrants from this area to the U.S. formed the Christian Reformed Church in North America.
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.[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 traditionally reflects the support for the Christian Democratic Party. However, especially since the 2000s, conservative bible belt Christians unhappy with the more liberal development of the party have increasingly turned to the Progress Party.[18][19] Several locations are occasionally referred to as the "Buckle of the Bible Belt": Aremark, Audnedal, Birkenes, Bjerkreim, Bømlo, Evje og Hornnes, Fedje, Finnøy, Fitjar, Flekkefjord, Forsand, Giske, Gjesdal, Haugesund, Hjelmeland, Hægebostad, Hå, Iveland, Karmøy, Kautokeino, Kvitsøy, Lindesnes, Lund, Lyngdal, Marker, Rakkestad, Rødøy, Rømskog, Selje, Sokndal, Strand, Time, Vegårshei, Vennesla, and Åseral.
In Eastern and Northern parts of Slovakia, Christians comprise a majority, in some towns and villages almost 100%.[20]
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.[21]
Prior to its independence, Ukraine was known as the Bible Belt of the Soviet Union.[22]
In England, the south-west of London (especially the county of Surrey) and the south coast area (between Eastbourne and Southampton) form a Bible belt with a higher than average concentration of evangelical Christians; also the counties of Somerset, Norfolk and Lincolnshire hold high in rates of church attendance. In Scotland the Highlands and Islands are a stronghold of socialist and liberal evangelical-linked Christianity[23], both in the established Church of Scotland and in smaller Presbyterian denominations such as the Free Church of Scotland. In Northern Ireland, the region centered on the northern part of County Antrim is often referred to as a Bible Belt. This is because the area is heavily Protestant with a large evangelical community. From 1970 to 2010, the MP for North Antrim was Ian Paisley, a Free Presbyterian minister well known for his theological fundamentalism. The town of Ballymena, the largest town in the constituency, is often referred to as the "buckle" of the Bible Belt.[24]
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