Are we living in two different countries?

September 15, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

In order to write for a blog, you also have to read blogs. I have found a number of theological blogs (more about which later). Some have very thoughtful people writing them. Others are scarey. It set me thinking about the geographic spectrum of thought in the U.S. of A.

I scoured my hard drive to find these maps again.

First, look carefully at the states that went Democratic or Republican in the last presidential election. Then look carefully at the states (or territories) that were free or slave before the Civil War.

(By the way, I did not verify this information, but who would attempt to falsify what could be verified from public records? I received it in an e-mail three years ago. The e-mail source at lower right of the slavery map is not really legible, so I’m passing it along with all the usual disclaimers.)

By and large the correlation of Red States = Slave States and Blue States = Free States is astonishing. The only significant variation from 1860 to 2004 are Indiana and Ohio.

I do not pass judgment on anybody. But I cannot help feeling as if there are two (or more) United States of Americas. These two entities seem to be vastly different from one another, not only in culture but in attitudes, not only experience but persuasions. The languages, the cuisine, the demographics are hugely different. I am sure a competent analyst of census data would find hundreds of interesting differences between the Mountain/Southern states and the Northern/Coastal states.  In terms of understanding and applying the Christian faith, I am repeatedly amazed how different we are, especially in that the Mountain/Southern states still seem to have, hold and reinforce an explicit Christian culture (however they see it).  But many of the blue states, especially the coastal ones, live in a much more heterodox world milieu that would not even dream of maintaining or enforcing a Christian culture.

Several years ago I was chatting with a church friend, an actress (well, wouldn’t you know). She said she and her husband had lived in Florida before coming to California.  I commented respectfully that Florida has many beautiful places. “Yes,” she said, “but I’ve met more interesting people in an elevator in California than any of my friends in Florida.”

One of these days, I will devise a rating system for the blogs I encounter, from radical left to looney right. Then as far as possible I will try to locate them geographically on either of the above maps. It should be revealing.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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