New Topic - Religion in the South - Wier

A few weeks ago as I was looking through news articles about southern stereotypes in preparation for a blog post, I ran across an extremely interesting quote in an article. The author was talking about religion in the south and how people from the north and south interpret the phrase "separation of church and state" differently:

"To a Southerner, separation of church and state means that the government has no business trying to control any aspect of the church or worship. Southerners want freedom to worship without government interference. If the South wants to elect persons who hold religious values and moral standings, it is their business. To a Northerner, the phrase means that those holding religious office should not take strong moral or religious stands, and that the government needs to make sure that churches do not get out of control or fanatical in the South."

As pointed out in the article, southern culture is heavily invested in religious belief, so is this strong religious leaning a good or bad thing? Does this strong religious background strengthen southern culture, or does it lessen how the rest of the world views the south? Another thing to look at is the stereotype of southerners being religious fanatics. A larger percentage of the people in the south claim to be religious than in other regions, but does more religious people actually mean that southerners are more fanatical than the rest of the country? Also, is the media right in portraying this religious fanaticism as a generally negative attribute?