Map of Religiousity

[A_Wanderer]

versus 2004 election county maps (Red = Republicans, Blue = Democrats)

Interesting the bits where there isn't a correlation.

 

[fly so high!]

Don't you mean political party strongholds?

 

[fly so high!]

Have you got one for Oz?

 

[A_Wanderer]

No the upper map puts that big blob of belivers in the middle, although the methodology could be a bit dodgy.

 

[melon]

That political map is always misleading, mainly because the population density of bluer areas is statistically much higher than the red areas. You could put in 10 South Dakotas in New York City and still not equal NYC's population.

In Michigan, as well, the entire state voted "Yes" on a proposition once, but the tiny little blue area for Detroit voted "No." "No" won.

Melon

 

[yolland]

the methodology could be a bit dodgy.

It was. Several major African-American denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, were not included, and independent churches--which describes a lot of Protestant churches--were only counted if their memberships exceeded 300. Particularly in the Deep South, that could make for some very skewed results. Also Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus were way undercounted because mosques and temples don't generally maintain lists of "members," which was what the study asked for. And Jews were way overcounted because they counted all self-identified ethnic Jews, regardless of religiosity, as "religious" for the purposes of this study. Also several other Christian denominations, including some pretty large ones like the Jehovah's Witnesses, refused to participate.

Really, you could make a map based on any of several demographic factors--minority concentrations, economic stratification, degree of urbanization, etc.--that might just as adequately (or inadequately) explain the political correlations.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Seek answers and you will find, this is a better information source than google

 

[indra]

It was. Several major African-American denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, were not included, and independent churches--which describes a lot of Protestant churches--were only counted if their memberships exceeded 300. Particularly in the Deep South, that could make for some very skewed results. Also Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus were way undercounted because mosques and temples don't generally maintain lists of "members," which was what the study asked for. And Jews were way overcounted because they counted all self-identified ethnic Jews, regardless of religiosity, as "religious" for the purposes of this study. Also several other Christian denominations, including some pretty large ones like the Jehovah's Witnesses, refused to participate.

Really, you could make a map based on any of several demographic factors--minority concentrations, economic stratification, degree of urbanization, etc.--that might just as adequately (or inadequately) explain the political correlations.

That makes sense to me, as I was wondering why the area I grew up in (sw ohio) was so low. I mean in some places around just about every third building is a church. But if the independent ones (a lot of them were splinter groups) had to have membership of 300 or more very few of them would be included. Hell, very few of the afiliated Churches in the more rural area's would have those numbers (although apparently they would be counted).

 

[yolland]

Depending on which organization precisely they were affiliated with, they might not have been counted either--not all "Southern Baptist" churches actually belong to THE Southern Baptist Conference, for example, and plenty of smaller "offshoot" conferences were left out. I remember choking on my coffee when I first saw this map a couple years back because I knew no way was Leflore County, MS only 35-50% religious. Not everyone was a regular churchgoer of course, but EVERYBODY made sure to get on the membership roster of some church or another, if only because that was the sole way to avoid the indignity of being laid to rest in the pathetic tiny public cemetery. Which in Delta country is quite literally the last word in utter humiliation.

 

[U2democrat]

Whaddya know...some democrats are actually christian!

 

[verte76]

That's right, this Christian voted Democratic in the last election. I have never voted for a Republican presidential candidate. I may end up voting in our Republican primary this year just to try to keep Roy Moore out of the governor's office. If he gets elected I don't know what I'll do. I'll be tempted to leave the state, even though this is terribly impractical for me. Once again my state will be the laughing stock of the planet. This is getting old. I'm tired of idiots in my state's government. The current governor is actually OK, but Moore is my worst nightmare.

 

[the rockin edge]

Whaddya know...some democrats are actually christian!

you're kidding!


wish i knew some.

 

[nbcrusader]

Whaddya know...some democrats are actually christian!

But why do they hate God?















j/k!!!!

 

[nbcrusader]

Depending on which organization precisely they were affiliated with, they might not have been counted either--not all "Southern Baptist" churches actually belong to THE Southern Baptist Conference, for example, and plenty of smaller "offshoot" conferences were left out. I remember choking on my coffee when I first saw this map a couple years back because I knew no way was Leflore County, MS only 35-50% religious. Not everyone was a regular churchgoer of course, but EVERYBODY made sure to get on the membership roster of some church or another, if only because that was the sole way to avoid the indignity of being laid to rest in the pathetic tiny public cemetery. Which in Delta country is quite literally the last word in utter humiliation.

I noticed a similar trend in tiny Mendenhall MS. One one stretch of residential country road, we walked passed five different chuch buildings to get to the Mendenhall Ministries building.

It would be interesting to see the list of reasons for all the offshoot churches - probably many tied to small, personal differences in leadership style for these already tiny congregations.

 

[all_i_want]

Why does that map remind me of Red Alert 2 (the game)?

 

[indra]

I noticed a similar trend in tiny Mendenhall MS. One one stretch of residential country road, we walked passed five different chuch buildings to get to the Mendenhall Ministries building.

It would be interesting to see the list of reasons for all the offshoot churches - probably many tied to small, personal differences in leadership style for these already tiny congregations.

That's very much the case in my area. Members of a congregation get angry at each other and instead of working on their differences, one (sometimes more) group will split off and build/start a new church. There are several offshoots of the church my dad was a part of all his life, and other ones have offshoots too. I imagine by now even the offshoots have offshoots.

 

[verte76]

This is going on with independent Protestant churches in my area also, they're proliferating like crazy.

 

[STING2]

No the upper map puts that big blob of belivers in the middle, although the methodology could be a bit dodgy.

This is a map of membership in religious congregations, not a map of all those who have religious or spiritual belief. Many people who are not members of religious congregations have religious or spiritual beliefs.