Posted on 03/21/2008 1:47:24 PM PDT by Grig
Cuius Regio, Eius Religio - this Latin saying applies to Europe, and to the principle that ended religious warfare: “Whose region (it is), whose religion (shall predominate)”. But it sprang to mind when seeing this map of the US, showing the leading church bodies per county. The map demonstrates the important link between region and religion, or to put it more precisely: where you live is a predictive factor as to where you worship.
The map highlights 8 major Christian denominations, showing where they represent a plurality (and in counties marked with a + at least 50%) of the relevant counties’ population. This shows that there are quite a few remarkably contiguous religious blocks in the US
The most notable of those contiguous areas is that of the Baptists, a term that is quite rightly almost synonymous with Southern Baptist (a bit like how Orthodox in Europe equals Eastern Orthodox; as “western orthodoxy” is referred to as Catholicism). Baptists are the biggest congregations in nigh on all counties of nine states (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee), and are a major presence in West Virginia (where Methodists dominate the northeast), Virginia (where the selfsame Methodists have a foothold in the border area with West Virginia) and Missouri (the area around St Louis being majoritarily Catholic). Florida, Louisiana and Texas are split between a Catholic South and a Baptist North – to a large part due to the large, traditionally Catholic communities of Latinos in southern Texas and Florida and of Cajuns (French-Americans) in Louisiana.
Another block, but not nearly as neatly contiguous, is the Lutheran one, present in the northern Midwest and West, best represented in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin. Lutheran here often is synonymous with German-American or more broadly speaking Northern European – again, Lutheran conjures up certain geographical, not to say climatological images; a form of worship designed to survive the grimmest of winters. It would be very hard to rhyme a Latin culture with the Lutheran religion.
I don’t know is there’s a similar link thinkable in the Methodist case. The Methodist areas are also much smaller and much more disparate: in West Virginia (as mentioned) and adjacently in areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio. There’s a sprinkling of Methodist-dominated counties in Maryland, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Strangely, most Methodist-dominated counties lie between two parallels of longitude determined by the northern border of Nebraska and Pennsylvania and the southern border of Kansas and Virginia.
The Mormons dominate every county in their state of Utah, and have proceeded from there to become numerically superior in some counties of adjacent states, such as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada – they are the biggest congregation in the county that holds Las Vegas.
Most of the other counties have Catholics as the most numerous congregation, leading to a somewhat misleading map. Catholicism very often is the biggest denomination by default, owing to the fact that their institutional unity boosts ‘market share’ but at the same time masks differences between different wings of the Roman church that are as great as between denominations of Protestantism that have separated over theological differences.
On the other side of the bums on pews versus quality of purpose spectrum are the Mennonites (among whom the Amish are the strictest of the strict), dominating in very few counties, but where they do, often in two or three adjacent counties (as in northern Indiana, central Ohio and central Kansas).
Quite puzzling finally is the denomination labelling itself as Christian, dominating in central Illinois and Indiana. I thought they all were. Christian, that is…
Quite puzzling finally is the denomination labelling itself as Christian, dominating in central Illinois and Indiana. I thought they all were. Christian, that is…
Campbellite restorationist would be my guess.
Thee are several "denominations" that use this name.
The non-instrumental Christian church doesn't believe you should use any form of musical instrument not named in the New Testament ~ which is why they sing a'capella.
Every time this question is brought up we find various Freepers who do or do not include the non-instrumental congregations in the Restoration circle.
Article said: Most of the other counties have Catholics as the most numerous congregation, leading to a somewhat misleading map. Catholicism very often is the biggest denomination by default, owing to the fact that their institutional unity boosts ‘market share’ but at the same time masks differences between different wings of the Roman church that are as great as between denominations of Protestantism that have separated over theological differences.
Um...that’s BS.
I see small islands of Lutherans in the South. These are the places that you will find the best coffee before and after services.
It is a well known fact that Lutherans have the best coffee.
t is a well known fact that Lutherans have the best coffee.
Might be an ethnic thing. I saw a map of world coffee usage once. IIRC, the really, really heavy, swimming in a brown aromatic sea coffee users are Scandinavian.
Good reference ~ someone with some knowledge of the Restoration belief made sure to show the connection (via dotted line) back to the time of the Christian congregation in Jerusalem.
Was at a funeral last month, in one of the yellow counties on that map. Turned out to be a Church of Christ. The dedication stone said "Founded by Jesus Christ in AD 33". It was all very happy-clappy evangelical, except for one passing comment by the presiding minister that, if you were paying attention, pointed to their belief in necessity of baptism for salvation. It didn't seem the time or place to raise a ruckus about it.
I'm not sure how useful the map is. According to it, we should be tripping over Roman Catholics here. They are there, but so's most everybody else. Driving down the street, you're far more likely to see a mainline Protestant church or one of these generic non- (or weakly) denominational evangelical churches.
Do Protestant and non-mainline churches count people who have left their congregation in the minus column ? Can anyone answer that for us ?
It varies. Southron Baptists, for instance, are notorious for having far higher membership numbers than attendance numbers.
The map is from 2000 is there a 2007/2008 ? Thanks!
Hurray for orange and yellow! I’m shocked how little there is of orange and yellow, and how much red there is. I’m not sure I know what “reformed” is. But there sure is alot of that too.
I was somewhat intrigued with this map ever since I did an intense survey of the Rand McNally religious survey map 30 years ago. At that time Indiana was the only state that reported having no counties with a majority composed of members of a single denomination.
Now, it has such a county, and some of those earlier reported as highly mixed are now shown to be 50% or more Catholic.
I suspect what we have here is useless for planning purposes! Or, the Catholics have been making striking gains.
Religious Adherents
Church Bodies
Catholic
Baptist
Methodist
Lutheran
Lutheran Groups
ELCA
LCMS
WELS
Jewish
Pentecostal
Latter-Day Saints (Mormon)
| Christian Presbyterian Episcopal United Church of Christ Muslim Eastern Orthodox Church of the Nazarene Reformed Mennonite Amish Unitarian Congregational Friends (Quaker) |
And the most important map of them all:
US Counties With High Percentages of Unclaimed/Unchurched (sorry pdf file only)
You are wrong about the Catholic Church counting by baptism. The Church takes a census a couple times a year. Certainly when it performs the Biblically mandated Baptism of babies they are counted in that families participation in the census if the family is active.
I’m not sure I know what “reformed” is. But there sure is alot of that too.
Reformed would be Reformed Church in America (one of the oldest bodies in NA), and a few smaller churches. Where these are at (west Michigan and Iowa), I'm guessing Christian Reformed Church. Theologically, ideally, they should be lumped together with Presbyterians, who are now classified as "other", as the major differences between them have to do with country of origin.
"Other", noted as grey. A few counties out west, and most of Alaska. Is there a blessed (but chilly) Presbyterian Shangri-La out there somewhere? Probably not. That "strangers and sojourners in this world" thing.
Sure thing. I have been a Catholic my entire life and have filled out the little piece of paper every year since I reached adulthood and was off on my own, even during the 20+ years I was in military service.
If that’s not good enough for you, I am sure you are perfectly capable of doing your own research without me having to hold your hand. Google is always a good place to start:
http://www.google.com/search?q=catholic+church+census&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&start=10&sa=N
Other than that, I don’t really care whether you believe it or not because, as they say, it is what it is, and doesn’t really mean anything one way or another (denomination membership or trends that is) anyways.
(NOTE: the fastest growing religion in the world is Islam (might be the largest too...don’t remember)..does that mean it’s the best or true religion? I hardly think so.)
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