What you see below is not the latest information, but I'm sure the data has not changed much since these maps were put together. The first map shows dominant religious groups by county in the USA in the year 2000. I was a bit surprised to see how Catholicism is so prevalent in a "Protestant" country (click directly on the map to view it in detail).
The second map shows the dominant Protestant denominations by county. My denomination (SBC) really is in the South. In fact, its northern border runs relatively close to the Mason-Dixon Line. Having grown up in New York State (not city), I'm not surprised to see the Methodists being the largest group there. Unfortunately, the liberal UCC is the largest group in liberal New England.
I've added a third map just to remind us of our duty to "make disciples of all nations."
4 comments:
What strikes me about the Protestant map is that the Assemblies of God are the main group in swaths of California, Oregon, and Washington state, not to mention Hawaii. The A/G is one of the most fundamentalist denominations, yet it thrives in states that are traditionally liberal. That is fascinating to me.
ProphetCat,
You make an interesting point. Maybe the attraction has to do with the AG's charismatic practices rather than its conservatism.
The AG as a whole might be very "fundamentalist," but recently I've been surprised to find people within the denomination who are fairly "liberal"....the church that I used to attend was AG (though it was very conservative theologically [for the most part]), but it was "liberal" in some other areas...but I've met some AG ministers who are big fans of Rob Bell and the like....and to me, that's not fundamentalism.
Rhea,
I suppose this goes to show that within any denomination you are going to have a variety of beliefs and/or practices. I imagine that what holds the AG together is the charismatic emphasis, especially speaking in tongues.
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