The Gallup polling organization reported this week that
Mississippi leads the country in piety as the nation’s “most religious”
state. Vermont trails the pack at dead
last.
You’d think Mississippi would be godlier in every way, based
on how many people describe themselves as church-goers: more law-abiding,
sober, charitable and neighborly. That
would be a false assumption.
Here are some interesting facts about the “most religious”
state. Close behind Louisiana, which is
number one, Mississippi boasts the second highest murder rate in the United
States. Vermont, the “least religious”
state, is number forty-nine in homicides per 100,000 population. Only nearby New Hampshire has fewer murders. If Gallup is right, religion can be dangerous
to your health.
I’m sure there are lots of delightful people who live in
Mississippi, but there appear to be an inordinate number of creeps, too. The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a
hate group as an organization with “beliefs or practices that attack or malign
an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” Haters include white supremacists,
anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and similar unsavory types. There are 36 hate groups active in the “most
religious” state, and just 2 in Vermont.
One good measure of faith might be how a community cares for
its kids. (“Let the children come unto
me,” as an obscure Jewish carpenter once said, “for of such is the kingdom of
heaven.”) You probably won’t be
surprised to learn that Mississippi has the highest child poverty rates in the
country, with 35% of their youngsters impoverished. Despite being so “irreligious,” Vermont does
a good job of protecting the most vulnerable.
It’s in a tie for number four, with just 15% of its kids below the
poverty.
Garrison Keillor once said that sitting in a church doesn’t
make you Christian, any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car.
And apparently, living in Mississippi doesn’t make you more religious,
any more than living in Vermont makes you less so.
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1 comment:
How about rates of "diversity"-any correlation between "vibrant human variety" and "social pathologies" there?
How much "diversity" do you Unitarians have-after 40 years of celebrating "diversity"? Still stuck at 3% non-Whites (and nearly all of them middle/upper middle class)? Is the Unitarian/Universalist storefront congregation in the ghetto as rare a thing as Italian Lutherans?
And you living in Vermont, and not (say)the South has nothing whatsoever to do with color/race-of course not, that would be hypocritical. I'm sure you're a "passionate advocate"-from a distance, a very safe distance.
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