How religious is your city?

calladus

Critical Thinker
calladus
Joined
Feb 23, 2003
Messages
324
Fish out of water
Atheist in Fresno

Today, Benny Hinn is having a 'Crusade' at the Fresno Convention Center. Initial news reports are that about 10,000 people showed up to be 'healed' by his ministry.

Our paper, the Fresno Bee is also reporting on this.

You can still see the Billy Graham bumper stickers on cars all around Fresno, from his visit to the state University in 2001. Mr. Graham spoke to a packed stadium at California State University, Fresno.

This is the same stadium where the Promise Keepers held their rally in '98, and where the Ku Klux Klan placed literature on car windows during a nationally televised football game in '97.

The image that California is a hotbed of liberalism might be true for the costal towns, but it is definitely NOT true for the California central valley. This is a very conservative, very religious area - and a difficult place to be even moderate politically.

And difficult to be an Atheist.

I just wanna know - is this the same everywhere? How bad is the religious climate in your area?

'scuse the venting (and creative spelling.) Sometimes it gets a little thick here in town.
 
Right on the edge of the Bible Belt.

There are 4 or 5 Churches within walking distance, dozens within a 15 minute drive (and they are pretty good sized churches). For whatever reason, there just is never enough "god" to go around.

I dont know when Presbytarian became so popular, but I know of at least 3 Presbytarian churches.

We dont have it so bad, no one cares about this state. However I do remember a few commercials advertising "Dr. (they really emphasized that he was doctor of some kind...) Pinkney will be speaking about dinosaurs and how they walked with man in the blah blah convention center on blah blah date and time".

I'm sure the people in the UK and Australia dont have it nearly so bad.
 
<--- look at my location. What do you think?

Religion infuses the local news with regularity. There are 2 religious networks on Dallas cable, one of which has baught Channel 2 after PBS abandoned it. Jesus fish and bumper stickers are everywhere. Robert Tilton was based here for years. There's a large Muslim and Buddist population, primarily in the suburbs. There are several mega-churches with congregations over 10,000. There has been a great wailing and gnashing of teeth over beer and wine sales in some of the suburbs of late and the area of Dallas I live in is Dry for some reason.

This is also a town where I have met many more freethinkers of all sorts than I can recall previously in my life. There's a ton of strip joints. And if the Cowboys are playing well, and there's a game at noon, then the pastors know to make sure their sermons are over by 11:45am
 
Cincinnati is pretty religious. you can't walk 50 feet wiithout seeing a church. when billy graham came and spoke last year, the attendance was very high.
 
Yahweh said:
There are 4 or 5 Churches within
Click to expand...

Heh - I can literally step out my front door and hit a church with a well chucked rock. (Don't worry, I won't actually try the experiment!)

According to Yahoo, there are 20 Christian Churches, a Mosque, and a Temple within a one mile radious of my house. I'm pretty this is under-reported, I know of at least 4 small churches in the area too.

On the University campus there are 13 official religious organizations, plus off campus recruiters for everything from preachers in the public area to Scientologists recruiting via tracts.

BTW - this week I found several Scientologists out front of Wal-Mart with an E-Meter, giving 'stress tests' and having people fill out the 'oxford' test.
 
calladus said:
According to Yahoo, there are 20 Christian Churches, a Mosque, and a Temple within a one mile radious of my house. I'm pretty this is under-reported, I know of at least 4 small churches in the area too.
Click to expand...
Now why didnt I think of that...

Yahoo tells me I have 4 churches within 1 mile of my house, 205 churches within 10 miles.
 
http://www.inflatablechurch.com/mainpage.htm
This fantastic air filled building is 47ft long by 25ft wide & 47ft high. The attention to detail is heavenly complete with plastic "stained glass" windows and airbrush artwork which replicates the traditional church. Inside it has an inflatable organ, altar, pulpit, pews, candles and a gold cross. Even the doors are flanked by air-filled angels. The church can be built in three hours and dis-assembled in less than two hours.
Click to expand...
mainpage.htm
churchsidethumb.jpg
church5a.jpg
 
:eek:

I don't think we have that many churches in all Australia, let alone one city.

Australia is very NOT religious for Christians. Not that it doesn't exist, and it is higher in country towns, but it is of lower importance than, say, having a good time or the footy or the cricket. Islam is noticeable and rising, but definitely not more than a small minority. There are Hindu and Buddhist shrines, but only a handful of them.

Actually, footy and cricket and alcohol are closer to being our "religions" than anything else. :)

Australian's are pretty cynical generally, so religion is not a big issue most of the time.
 
Two churches on base, a chapel in off-base housing, at least one civilian church right out the gate, and three others within two miles of the base. The suburb around the base is "Pleasant Valley, a place of prayer and praise." according to the signs put up by the town.
 
I'm not sure exactly how religious Saint Louis is. I mean, there are lots of churches, but it's a fairly big place. If it is a mostly religious city, it's a mostly liberal religious city. I doubt Benny Hinn would mix well with our rather promenant gay community.

Now, you go out into the county where it is a little more conservative, he might get a warmer reception.
 
Gorges is well-known for it's religious tolerance. The upside is that I won't get hassled here for being an atheist. The downside is that pretty much any cult is welcome here.
 
Like US said, look where I'm at. It's Texas, so Jeeeesus is a part of daily life. The funny thing is, I find that everyone says they believe it all, but I only know a few people who actually attend church on a reguler basis.

I've always enjoyed drives through the woods of East Texas. There, I believe the churches actually outnumber houses. You'll see a town with a population of 200 and there'll be 15 churches in the immediate area.

UnrepentantSinner said:
There are several mega-churches with congregations over 10,000.
Click to expand...

Several of those in the Houston area, too. In fact, Lakewood Church is about to take over the lease on the Compaq Center now that the Rockets have a new arena.

I like to call them "Jesus-Domes".

I like to imagine ads for these places: [announcer voice]Sunday, Sunday, Suuuundaaaay. Jesus, Jesus, Jeeeeeeesus!!![/announcer voice]
 
I don't know whether most people around here are really religious, but you can't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a church.
 
Brown said:
I don't know whether most people around here are really religious, but you can't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a church.
Click to expand...

That's for sure. You also can't swing a dead cat without hitting a car with a Jesus fish plastered to it.
 
With atheists being such a small percentage of the US- it is likely that in any US community atheism is looked at as about as welcome as a fly on a colored bun--not sure what a colored bun is but I heard that expression in a movie and it sounds about right.
 
I wouldn't say Carson City is terribly religious, though we are in Mormon Country (Nevada has the highest percentage of Mormon Population outside of Utah). I did notice that the recent Creation/Evolution debate I attended barely filled up half our community center and it's not that big of an auditorium, despite the fact that it was put on by several local churches. I guess that says something.

I also notice that Religious types always run for county commisioner seats in those counties that allow prostitution on a platform of abolishing prostitution in that county and they fail every time. I think the fact that they can't get enough support to elect candidates to wipe out what they consider a terrible sin says something too.

On the other hand people still seem shocked when they find out that I am an atheist and I do see plenty of Jesus fish on cars, so even though religion may not be as big as it is in other places, it is still pretty prevalent.
 
Benny Hinn again

Now there seems to be a few protesters against him. Too bad they too are of the religious type.

However, it is nice to see a "Benny Hinn Leads to HELL!" sign!

Kind of a pot & kettle thing I guess.
 
Well, we have our own Christian phone directory.

No, it's not a joke. Interspersed among the ads and listings are the occasional bible verse and devotional phrase (e.g. "God is good!" and "Praise the Lord!). One in-house ad reads, "Honor Your Brothers & Sisters in Christ...Buy From Chirstian (sic) Businesses." Also liberally sprinkled among the listings are "Advertiser Testimonies." Here are some examples:

"I like to find other Christians quickly in the blue pages."
"I 'sowed' my advertising dollars in the 'good soil' of the Christian Blue Pages!"
"We believe in keeping our resources in God's kingdom and the Blue Pages has certainly helped us attain that goal."
"I have appreciated the opportunity for recognition as a Christian within my profession."
"It's a joy working with Christian clients because of comfort level and having same values and purpose in serving on another."
"The Christian Blue Pages is a great way for business owners to take a stand for Christ in the marketplace."
"With Blue Pages customers, we not only make a sale, but have the privilege of participating in the Lord's activity within the body of Christ!"
"We appreciate the fact that we are part of a publication which (sic) promotes Christian Businesses in the area."

Two rather large ads had the following slogans:

"You deserve a Christian physician."
"Choose a Christian attorney."

I'm thinking of running a phony ad:

"You deserve a Christian proctologist. If you're going to have someone's hand up yours, wouldn't you prefer it to be the hands that pray to Jesus?" ;)
 
UnrepentantSinner said:
<--- look at my location. What do you think?

...

This is also a town where I have met many more freethinkers of all sorts than I can recall previously in my life. <span style="background-color: skyblue">There's a ton of strip joints.</span> And if the Cowboys are playing well, and there's a game at noon, then the pastors know to make sure their sermons are over by 11:45am
Click to expand...
I work with several people from Dallas. They attend to church and the strippers with equal zeal.
 
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