Which State Has The Worst Bunch Of Fundies?

[Vomit Comet]

Pretty self-explanatory. Make your choice and then, if you can, explain your choice in detail.

 

Take everything into consideration. For example, the level of political power they wield, as well as how shitty they can make street-level existence for degenerates like us. Or how righteously nasty and shitty they are compared to other places you know of.

 

From what all I have heard, Oklahoma takes the cake. It really seems to qualify as the buckle of the Bible Belt. Texas, if only its eastern slice, is a close second. Then again, I believe the fundies in Oklahoma are more rabid, but the ones in Tex-Ass have more power to wreak havoc at the national (and, arguably, global) level. So it's a tough one. But then a buddy of mine in Houston said "the entire world thinks that Texas is full of hicks and mutants. But we here in Texas think that Oklahoma is full of hicks and mutants!"

 

Hmmmmm... that's a tough one. Texas is so big! I bet deeper into the South there are states that are profoundly more fundie as a whole than Texas is.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

Don't matter where they are, they all f***in suck, and cause problems no matter where they settle

[godlessgrrl]

I almost picked Utah, because of the massive presence of the LDS there.

 

But really, it doesn't matter where the fundies are, they all fuckin' suck.

[florduh]

The State of Ignorance is a Fundy breeding ground.

 

Otherwise, bizarre Fundy tales seem to come from all over, with the majority from Texas and Florida. Only the most outrageous public instances of Fundyism make national news, so it's hard to judge daily life in a given state without actually living in each one for a time.

 

I can say it gets pretty Fundy Weird here in Florida, and I can say it's worse than it was in my former home of Ohio. That's not to say the Midwest is a bastion of rationality and free thought.

[Vomit Comet]

Aw shit, I forgot Florida!

 

I almost picked Utah, because of the massive presence of the LDS there.

 

But really, it doesn't matter where the fundies are, they all fuckin' suck.

 

Yeah, but would you rather have to live in Oklahoma or Oregon?

 

By "worst" I am largely implying the power they have to fuck with the rest of us. In Nevada, the Mormons run things but they have a far more laissez-faire approach to the rest of us poor slobs, which makes for a dramatic night-and-day comparison with the Utards. The evangelicals on the other hand, while there's a fair number in white bread 'burbs like Henderson and Green Valley, they can't do fucking shit!

 

Consider also that place matters a great deal. Canada has half the number of fundies than we do, and they are much more well behaved. In Canada, most the fundies are concentrated in Sasketchewan, which is Canada's own personal Texas. They try to portray themselves as a "minority among minorities", entitled to as much tolerance and respect as LGBT, Hindus, and Africans are entitled to.

 

Whereas here in America they portray themselves as some kind of "majority" who Founded this great land and are therefore entitled to the fucking keys to the place. The Canadian fundies exhibit almost none of the political belligerence or ahistoric delusions of grandeur that their American counterparts do. The Canadian fundies, while they do seem to envy their American counterparts, are more like "please be nice to us. Please?"

 

Therefore, the very fact that they exist within the overall culture of Canada really serves to take a lot of the edge off.

[Vigile]

Idaho has a lot of fundies but the general culture in the state is one of live and let live as long as you don't tell me what to do. My impression is that Montana is even more so this way and I believe I've discussed this with Woody and that he implied Utah is as well, but he should probably confirm that himself as I'm not 100% sure my memory is accurate on this one.

 

As a result, there isn't much fundy influence in the state. The stories I read here about the south always shock me because I don't recall anyone ever giving a shit about what I believed in ID and most don't make it an issue what they believe either unless they are a fundy themselves, but then most people in the state kind of think those who do are a little weird and those who wear it on their sleeve make others uncomfortable.

[lunaticheathen]

Honestly, I have limited experience with fundies outside of Gulf South (Dixie). I know that the christards pretty much run Alabama, where I grew up. We had the "Ten Commandments Judge" Roy Moore, and the present governor is illegally raiding casinos and racetracks, because gambling makes Baby Jeebus cry. Also, they still have dry counties (where sale of booze is outright illegal). Not that it makes a difference, only that the roads in those counties suck, and "line stores" (shops that sell booze just over the county line) make buck off of stupid laws that make no damn difference and increase drunk driving.

Also, in college, for being openly Pagan, I had garbage thrown at me.

But, I've heard horror stories from other states, so I picked "they suck everywhere." Because, all evidence points to the fact that they do.

[hereticzero]

I did not see the Nanny State of Nebraska on the list. I don't know if it is the number of fundies in this state or whether the majority of voters here are just, well, special?

[Vomit Comet]

I could've done it for all 50 states but the poll thingy limits it to 20 options per question.

 

The shit that apparently happens in Alabama wouldn't happen in California, even in the most rural parts. Maybe I should reframe the question: in which state do the fundies run amok to the greatest degree?

[Carmen]

I did not see the Nanny State of Nebraska on the list. I don't know if it is the number of fundies in this state or whether the majority of voters here are just, well, special?

 

There are a lot of fundies here, but not many of the more radical ones that I've heard about in the deep south.

[Andy]

I picked Utah before I saw the last option. But still I think it ranks up there with not just the mainstream Mormon church but also all of the fundamentalist polygamist communities they have.

[par4dcourse]

I put in a half-hearted vote for NC out of loyalty, but when the nut-jobs at the CofG get together, it's Cleveland, TN they hold in reverence. KY is pretty "Deliverence for Jesus" too.

[texmex2003]

Having lived in both Texas and Oklahoma, I had to select Texas as being more fundamental. My former home of Amarillo, now has an extreme fundamental group called Repent Amarillo, (protesting the city of Houston for daring to elect an openly gay mayor). I now reside in Tulsa, home of both Oral Roberts and Rhema Bible College. Even with these bastions of the Paulist sect, Tulsa is quite liberal (for Oklahoma standards) and I know of no group along the lines of Repent Amarillo.

[Midnight-mindwanderings]

I chose Mississippi because it statistically (I believe) has the most believers and from all accounts the state sucks major ass. Its pretty much at the bottom of every list. Plus the whole Constance Prom thing happened there which was pretty messed up. And I read today:

 

Charleston High School in Mississippi held its first racially integrated prom just two years ago. The event came about only after the school accepted actor and Charleston native Morgan Freeman's offer to pay for the senior prom. His only condition: That both blacks and white could attend. Some whites, however, still held their own 'white only' prom.

 

Source

 

So Mississippi is on my shit list right now.

[Objet_trouve24]

Texas has some hippie haven spots, but Abilene is by far the most fundie town I've ever seen. It also has a cult complex on the outskirts of town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Yahweh

[godlesssinner]

While I haven't lived in *every* state, I have lived in several. And where I currently reside (Texas) has been the worst yet. Interesting enough, Wisconsin was the "least worst". The one and only time I've ever been confronted with religion up there was for my father's funeral (it seems that you can't marry or die without religious intervention ANYWHERE in the good ol' U.S. of A). I especially like that while a considerably portion of Wisconsin's population may be drunks, they aren't religious hypocrites. I've never encountered a dry county in WI (instead of a church every mile, there's a bar every half a mile) and I've never heard the governor go on a bible-thumping homophobic tangent.

[godlessgrrl]

Yeah, but would you rather have to live in Oklahoma or Oregon?

 

Hmm, good point, well made. Oregon...

 

...but even that depends on where in OR.

 

I'm actually right across the border from OR, in WA. It's pretty godless here, but there are pockets of uber-religiosity. Seattle, for instance, has wackjobs like Mars Hill. I think they see us as fertile ground, frankly, a place to come and preach to the unsaved. Right now I'm living in a small military town west of the Cascades, and there are lots of fundies around, of the type who freely mix their conservative political views with their authoritarian religious ones.

 

Strangely enough, though, in this county there's also a large but very quiet pagan community. So go figure.

 

Fundies still suck.

[Seeking]

And where I currently reside (Texas) has been the worst yet. Interesting enough, Wisconsin was the "least worst".

 

I spent the first 22 years of my life in rural Wisconsin. Ah, memories! The closest town to where I grew up (population about 2,000) had at least eight churches. Every single person I ever knew was affiliated with a church. All of my friends were friends from our Baptist church, and anyone who wasn't Baptist was suspected of being a heathen, including - no, especially! - the Lutherans, Methodists, and Catholics. Even the other Baptist church in town was looked at with skepticism! The people in my home area tend to be very bigoted people.

 

And now I live in Texas.

[godlesssinner]

And where I currently reside (Texas) has been the worst yet. Interesting enough, Wisconsin was the "least worst".

 

I spent the first 22 years of my life in rural Wisconsin. Ah, memories! The closest town to where I grew up (population about 2,000) had at least eight churches. Every single person I ever knew was affiliated with a church. All of my friends were friends from our Baptist church, and anyone who wasn't Baptist was suspected of being a heathen, including - no, especially! - the Lutherans, Methodists, and Catholics. Even the other Baptist church in town was looked at with skepticism! The people in my home area tend to be very bigoted people.

 

And now I live in Texas.

 

 

Interesting. Just goes to show that no matter what state you're in, you can always find pockets of religious insanity.

[HRDWarrior]

If you're in the right parts of Wisconsin, it's not too bad - where I grew up, it was horrible. EVERYONE was a christian, the only problem we ever dealt with was the "we're right, they're wrong, we're better than them" issue. The fundies were extremists - women were to be submissive to men, wives to their husbands no matter what, no drinking, dancing, card games (too close to gambling), if you were married you were pumping out babies, men worked, women stayed home. You get the idea - think 1800's america alive and well - skirts/dresses on all the women included

 

California's fundies are also relatively powerful - despite the state's reputation nationally, within it's own borders we have a strong conservative group that comes out in droves when needed (there's a reason Prop 8 failed even here). They aren't as in-your-face about it though, then again, maybe it's just because it gets balanced out by the crazies on the extreme other end

 

 

Texas, in my experience, was potentially the worst, especially politically speaking...a lot of "-isms" are alive and well in even moderate sized towns down there. I never ran into too many fundies, but then again I was mostly on the military base other than when I was out hanging at the barn and the people I met there, so not the same as living there.

 

Beyond that, I haven't spent enough time in other states to give much of an opinion - I've visited a large percentage of the nation's states, but mostly passing through and just doing the quick stops to check out this site or that.

[Neon Genesis]

Since Virginia recently removed sexuality from discrimination laws and encouraged universities to discriminate against the LGBT community and they recently have been trying to pass a National Confederate History Day while forgetting to mention slavery was bad because it wasn't important to their governor, I'm voting for Virginia.

[GypsyMoon]

OMFG its so AWESOME living in a Liberal Country like New Zealand... there's still fundies here but they're over populated by people like myself with NO RELIGION!!!

[Vomit Comet]

California's fundies are also relatively powerful - despite the state's reputation nationally, within it's own borders we have a strong conservative group that comes out in droves when needed (there's a reason Prop 8 failed even here). They aren't as in-your-face about it though, then again, maybe it's just because it gets balanced out by the crazies on the extreme other end

 

Native Los Angeleno here. Their influence is certainly felt in a certain few suburbs--I particularly think of northern L.A. County, and of southern Orange County--though it's probably softer and more subtle than what you might get in a suburb of Houston. You would also feel their influence a bit more acutely in the inland cities/towns like Bakersfield or Modesto than you would in the coastal cities.

 

If anything, the Mormons have a bigger dick to swing around, but they're much quieter and behind-the-scenes about it; that is, unless you happen to live in a town dominated by them, such as some of the small farm towns in Ventura County. It's like that in Nevada, too. The Mormons have always had the biggest dick here, even bigger than the Mafia's in their heyday, but here in Nevada they don't give a shit what the rest of us do as long as they've got $$$ to count at the end of the day.

 

For the most part, despite California having its own strong fundie heritage from back in the day (e.g., Aimee Semple MacPherson, etc.), California fundies realize they're a minority on foreign ground. So they try to play it cool. They try to blend in. "See? We're just as hip and cool as the rest of you!" So you get that warm fuzzy hip cool consumer-friendly Rick Warren megachurch brand of fundyism that is now the avant-garde of American fundyism; I don't think it could have emerged anywhere else except for California.

 

At any rate, the fundies in California have no illusions about owning the place, a certain few suburbs and farm towns aside.

[greenhunter]

Having lived in both Texas and Oklahoma, I had to select Texas as being more fundamental. My former home of Amarillo, now has an extreme fundamental group called Repent Amarillo, (protesting the city of Houston for daring to elect an openly gay mayor). I now reside in Tulsa, home of both Oral Roberts and Rhema Bible College. Even with these bastions of the Paulist sect, Tulsa is quite liberal (for Oklahoma standards) and I know of no group along the lines of Repent Amarillo.

 

 

you too, i live there..yes it's "liberal" until you say you're not a "christian" but isn't that everywhere?

[The-Captain]

Having lived in both Texas and Oklahoma, I had to select Texas as being more fundamental. My former home of Amarillo, now has an extreme fundamental group called Repent Amarillo, (protesting the city of Houston for daring to elect an openly gay mayor).

 

Amarillo is one of the most fundie-ridden cities in the state, and probably the largest to display such virulent forms. The worst in Texas seem concentrated in the West and Panhandle area, followed by East Texas. Things are livable in the major metropolitan areas and their surrounds in that corridor running from San Antonio and Houston to Austin and the DFW.

 

We've got Hagee too.