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Apparently all those 50-foot crosses lining highways in the American South and rural areas are more of a claim than proof, reports the Daily Yonder.
Rural residents are filled with President Donald Trump voters who take great pleasure in harping their religiosity over “3rd world country” or “hellhole” urban areas. Driven by unending, exaggerated images of inner-city violence, even the president demonizes cities, blasting inflated claims of “soaring” housing costs, 'diseases … spreading like wildfire' and claims that 'police can’t handle the surge in crime' after being 'flooded … with migrants ....'"
Meanwhile, MAGA likes to claim that Christianity is enjoying a surge among Gen-Z, who are allegedly going to evangelical churches in big numbers.
But not only does the recent “surge” appear to be overblown, rural areas do not appear to hold an edge over urban areas in terms of religious fervor, according to surveys.
“In the majority of nonmetropolitan, or rural, counties, the most popular Christian tradition is evangelicalism, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Religion Census, a county-level, once-per-decade dataset that reports the number of congregations and adherents in American faith groups. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that rural people are more religious than their urban and suburban counterparts,” reports Daily Yonder.
Evangelicals do account for a disproportionate share of the population in nonmetropolitan counties, according to the analysis, with roughly 20 percent of evangelicals living in rural counties, but writer Sarah Alexander Melotte writes that doesn’t mean the passion in the countryside is exactly running high.
“You might think that means nonmetropolitan residents are more religious, but that’s actually not the case,” said Melotte, explaining that the survey measures “religiosity” as the share of the population that regularly attends religious services. The U.S. Religion Census is essentially a headcount of congregants, not an individual survey — or apparently claims of enthusiasm, she said.
“The nation’s largest cities actually had the highest religious adherence rates, making up just about half of the population in metropolitan counties with populations greater than one million residents,” Melotte pointed out. “The overall religious adherence rate in nonmetropolitan counties was 48 percent, meanwhile.
Although the differences are small and within the margin of error, Melotte said there’s little reason for country folk to consider themselves necessarily more religious than their urban or suburban counterparts. All they really are is swinging evangelical, according to datasets.
It’s an interesting fact to note the next time a MAGA social media poster is commenting on “godless” American cities during church hours.