Which State Has The Worst Bunch Of Fundies?

[Deva]

I have lived in East Texas, Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey. My pick for worst is Texas, followed by Virginia.

 

Certain sections of Northern VA and the metropolitan areas of Texas are much better than the rural areas. Austin, TX is like a beacon of sanity. You can tell from even a short visit.

[Neon Genesis]

 

 

Certain sections of Northern VA and the metropolitan areas of Texas are much better than the rural areas. Austin, TX is like a beacon of sanity. You can tell from even a short visit.

Isn't the Cathedral of Hope, the largest LGBT Christian church located in Dallas, TX?

[Deva]

Certain sections of Northern VA and the metropolitan areas of Texas are much better than the rural areas. Austin, TX is like a beacon of sanity. You can tell from even a short visit.

Isn't the Cathedral of Hope, the largest LGBT Christian church located in Dallas, TX?

 

I don't know much about Dallas.

[The-Captain]

I do, but I don't know much about it's churches

[Sazzy]

Personally, I think that most of the Southern States are the worst. Like Alabama, Georgia, Texas, etc. Since I couldn't choose more than one, I decided to go all-inclusive and say 'they all fuckin suck'

[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).

 

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.

 

Repent Amarillo is their Westboro Baptist group. Protesting outside of stripper joints, swinger clubs, the local Unitarian Church. Taking down licence plates and harrasing those they find disagreement with. Calling neighbors and employers and "telling" on them. Pretty scary aspect of this, their leader is a security guard at the nuclear bomb facility plant. He probably does not have access to the specific area where the nukes or plutonium pits are stored, but just the thought of it sends shivers up my spine.

[Shyone]

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.

 

Repent Amarillo is their Westboro Baptist group. Protesting outside of stripper joints, swinger clubs, the local Unitarian Church. Taking down licence plates and harrasing those they find disagreement with. Calling neighbors and employers and "telling" on them. Pretty scary aspect of this, their leader is a security guard at the nuclear bomb facility plant. He probably does not have access to the specific area where the nukes or plutonium pits are stored, but just the thought of it sends shivers up my spine.

I am reminded of the weird blond religious guy in the movie Contact that caused the destruction of the first facility.

[Sybaris]

Gotta be Texas. The criteria was how much they could affect the rest of us, right? Dumbya is from Texas. Didn't he say that his god told him invading Iraq was the right thing to do?

[Adelice]

Cr*p is Cr*ap , no matter where you dump it

[Mriana]

You forgot the state of Misery (Missouri). SW MO is the worst, esp since it is the HQ of the A of G. They can drive most anyone insane.

[IhaveacatnamedJames]

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.

 

I also live in Oklahoma. I would have to give it my vote, not only for Oral Roberts, but our dear old friend... Sally Kern.

[ElrondHubbard]

I gave the vote to my state - Kansas - because we have Fred Phelps. He's the fundie trump card.

[godlesssinner]

I gave the vote to my state - Kansas - because we have Fred Phelps. He's the fundie trump card.

 

Hard to argue with that one.

 

 

Austin, TX is like a beacon of sanity. You can tell from even a short visit.

 

When I took a trip down last year to visit my aunt, I felt the same way. Though all the hipsters and "Look at me, I'm so green/eco conscious" self-congratulatory assholes got to me within two days.

[Vomit Comet]

I've heard Austin described as "an island in a sea of Texas."

[Neon Genesis]

 

 

I also live in Oklahoma. I would have to give it my vote, not only for Oral Roberts, but our dear old friend... Sally Kern.

Didn't Oklahoma also ban Dawkins?

[decafaholic]

Maybe because I'm so personally into this issue, I voted based on how the states are reacting to the issue of gay rights. Here in Arkansas, it's not a very friendly place for gays, but the vote last year that prevented gay couples from adopting got overturned, so we're slowly coming out of the dark ages.

 

The reason I voted for Mississippi is it's the only state in the union that's worse than Arkansas in almost every aspect. My family has a saying: "Thank God for Mississippi! If it weren't for them, we would be last in everything!"

[Ancey]

Yeah, there's a different breed of Christians available in Michigan- Finnish Lutheran Apostolics.

 

They don't proselytize, I suppose is the nice thing about them. Because they think anyone not born into their church is going to hell anyway, so it doesn't matter to convert people. They can be jerks pretty easily, though (they'll mock and tease people outside of their denomination), and they have MASSIVE families (be fruitful and multiply, birth control is evil, and rock and roll and TV is evil, too. Actually, any music is bad) and all their teens tend to smoke and get wasted and wreck things. My cousin's house was vandalized and the culprits were like Apostolics (because she was staying with her boyfriend and was divorced, and some stuff aimed at her older son).

 

We even have a name for Apostolics: Bangers (I think it's because they bang their second cousins and have lots of kids, I might be mistaken, though.)

 

I've heard some serious ignorance coming from them before, but they're not exactly fundies. Some Apostolics leave the area and plenty seem to believe in Evolution (otherwise they wouldn't have survived our school's AP biology curriculum). I only know of one creationist amongst my friends, and he's a Baptist.

 

My mom used to be an Old Apostolic, she converted to a less strict Lutheran church.

[Vendredie]

North Carolina almost shouldn't be on the poll. We have more than our fair share of fundies, but I haven't heard of any efforts to ban evolution from schools, ban abortion, etc. The only fundy-ish things NC has are discrimination against gays being legal, and abstinence-only sex ed. While those two do enough damage on their own, that's tame compared to what the crazy states around us like to do.

 

As far as fundies go in NC, they seem to operate almost solely on the local level (with the notable exception of Jesse Helms and Billy Graham). That's probably why my rural podunk-ass county seems to be a non-religious paradise compared to more urban parts of Virginia (I live right on the border). There's no difference here in closing times on weekdays and weekends- things stay open on Saturday nights just as late as any other night. We're really NOT a non-religious paradise, given how much the schools like to stick their heads in the sand regarding sex, and how much said schools like discriminating against gays, but it's far less restrictive than Chesapeake, VA.

 

That being said, I think I'll choose Virginia as the worst fundy state. I mean, ffs, they've got Pat Robertson AND Jerry Falwell! (well, they *had* Falwell...) There's a church on every corner even in the most urban parts (VA Beach and Norfolk, around here) and let's not even get started on the discrimination, the Confederate History bullshit...

[sumluvlifilth]

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.

I love Washington! In Washington (aside from Uber-Fundies) no one really cares what anyone believes, or if they do they're too politically correct to say anything about it. Eastern WA is especially worried about political correctness, even in churches.

I would have to say that the worst state in the way of Fundies I have ever been to is Alabama. My grandfather, who always practiced the traditional "spirits are in nature" stuff that the Native Americans practiced/practice (he was Cherokee) would get harassed by his neighbors all the time (though that could have been racism).

When I was there, I was asked about my beliefs (apparently many of them equate Yankee with godless) I told them I didn't really know what I believed (I was only 12) and I was met with a non-sensical, mouth-foaming, religious rant from a couple who was so illiterate that there was no way either of them could have told me what the bible even said.

[OpheliaGinger]

That being said, I think I'll choose Virginia as the worst fundy state. I mean, ffs, they've got Pat Robertson AND Jerry Falwell! (well, they *had* Falwell...) There's a church on every corner even in the most urban parts (VA Beach and Norfolk, around here) and let's not even get started on the discrimination, the Confederate History bullshit...

 

Try Tennessee where there is a church on every corner, even in the most rural of areas.

[Vendredie]

That being said, I think I'll choose Virginia as the worst fundy state. I mean, ffs, they've got Pat Robertson AND Jerry Falwell! (well, they *had* Falwell...) There's a church on every corner even in the most urban parts (VA Beach and Norfolk, around here) and let's not even get started on the discrimination, the Confederate History bullshit...

 

Try Tennessee where there is a church on every corner, even in the most rural of areas.

Virginia's probably the same as Tennessee then.