# Just how religious is the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 19, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580 "2011-07-19T14:06:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/141 "2012-12-10T23:36:54Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > In my godless town I’ve been to a few houses where the hosts said a prayer before eating, but at the non-believers they just say “dig in”. If they “held hands, invoked the Goddess, and chanted a pseudo-native-american blessing song” I’d probably lose my appetite. It’s surprising what you can get used to . . . but I would be a bad Doper if I did not disclose that I am slightly exaggerating for effect. Only slightly! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/142 "2012-12-11T04:35:40Z")
Ulfreida writes: \> . . . Arlington VA . . . Are you just throwing out random guesses? Arlington isn’t dominated by a college or university. The largest college in it is Marymount University, which isn’t particularly liberal at all. If there is any suburb of Washington D.C. which is known for being particularly liberal, it’s Takoma Park, Maryland, which has, for instance, declared itself to be a nuclear-free zone: > **[Takoma Park, Maryland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoma_Park,_Maryland)** > > Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, and part of the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City", is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone. A planned commuter suburb, it is situated along the Metropolitan Branch of the historic Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, just northeast of Washington, D.C., and it shares a border and history with the adjacent Washington, D.C... Also, Greenbelt, Maryland, where I live, has probably the second clearest reputation for being liberal in the metropolitan area: > **[Greenbelt, Maryland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbelt,_Maryland)** > > Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. > Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New Deal Greenbelt Towns, the others being Greenhills, Ohio, and Greendale, Wisconsin. Greenbelt was planned and built by the Federal government as an all-white town. The cooperative community was conceived in 1935 by Undersecretary of Agriculture Rexford Guy Tugwe... Greenbelt was created during the Depression and still considers itself an exemplar of New Deal liberalism. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/143 "2012-12-11T16:34:49Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Ulfreida writes: > > \> . . . Arlington VA . . . > > Are you just throwing out random guesses? Arlington isn’t dominated by a college or university. The largest college in it is Marymount University, which isn’t particularly liberal at all. If there is any suburb of Washington D.C. which is known for being particularly liberal, it’s Takoma Park, Maryland, which has, for instance, declared itself to be a nuclear-free zone: > > [Takoma Park, Maryland - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoma_Park,_Maryland) > > Also, Greenbelt, Maryland, where I live, has probably the second clearest reputation for being liberal in the metropolitan area: > > [Greenbelt, Maryland - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbelt,_Maryland) > > Greenbelt was created during the Depression and still considers itself an exemplar of New Deal liberalism. Not random, I googled up “most liberal towns in US” and Arlington consistently came up. Chapel Hill, I’ve visited and although I find it hard to believe, it seems to be an atoll of liberalism in a deep red sea. But the second list is more guess-like. Yeah, look for the nuclear free zones, that’s probably an excellent indicator right there. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/144 "2012-12-11T16:52:44Z")
So let’s talk about the desert itself instead of the occasional oasis. From another thread: > [@God doesn't seem very Godly to me](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-doesnt-seem-very-godly-to-me/643494/78): > > [Gallup poll: In U.S., 3 in 10 Say They Take the Bible Literally](http://www.gallup.com/poll/148427/Say-Bible-Literally.aspx) That’s 3 in 10 Americans, not just Chrtistians. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/145 "2012-12-12T03:28:12Z")
Could you provide a link to a website that claims to show that Arlington, Virginia is one of the most liberal cities in the U.S.? I think that that’s blatantly false. Here’s a website that gives some actual research on the subject: [http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/metro/081205libs.pdf](http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/metro/081205libs.pdf) It gives a list of the twenty-five most liberal cities in the U.S. Note that only a few of them fit your image of liberal oases being mostly college towns with hippyish, free-thinking reputations. Most of the really liberal towns have large percentages of black and somewhat poor people in them. Dressing like a liberal doesn’t mean that your political opinions are liberal. Arlington may be somewhat liberal, but it probably isn’t even in the top four most liberal towns in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/146 "2012-12-12T16:04:12Z")
That refers more to Democrat versus Republican voting patterns than actual liberal values. It’s legal for women to go topless in Eugene, OR. Is it legal in Detroit, MI? By the way, Oregon has the only state constitution without mention of god in its preamble. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/147 "2012-12-12T18:18:50Z")
_starts looking for real estate agents in Eugene_ ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/148 "2012-12-12T19:19:39Z")
> [@Glazer](#): > > It largely depends on the circles you run in. I live in the South and it rarely comes up in public. There does seem to be an assumption that you are Christian. But I’ve never had any problems other that someone trying to proselytize when they find out. They are easy to deal with by asking a few earnest questions. Usually they’ll just say that they will pray for me. I thank them and let it go at that. For very many religion is for Sunday and almost nonexistent the rest of the week. I’d argue that there’s a huge population of people who will self identify as believers, and who may occasionally go to church on Easter, or Christmas, but who don’t otherwise set foot in church except for weddings and funerals. Growing up (suburban western Houston, 1970s-1980s) , that seemed to be the default for most kids and their parents. The people who went to church every weekend were either bible-thumpers of some stripe, or didn’t bring it up at all. It also depends on where you live- since moving to Dallas, I’ve found that public displays and discussions of religion are much more common than in Houston. People put religious crap on their cars, and talk about church and even go so far as to ask what church I go to on occasion. There is definitely an assumption that if you’re white, that you’re Christian, but there’s no real obligations or expectations that come with that from what I can tell. Everyone seems to believe in evolution from what I can tell, although my circle of friends and acquaintances is pretty educated, so that may not be true in other groups. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/149 "2012-12-12T19:44:36Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Chapel Hill, I’ve visited and although I find it hard to believe, it seems to be an atoll of liberalism in a deep red sea. Not quite the same thing, but Durham votes way more Democrat than Chapel Hill. By a wide margin (based on the last election) it’s the outlier at the blue end, in NC. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/150 "2012-12-12T20:01:48Z")
I suppose someone should point out that “liberal” and “secular” are two different things. Some areas that vote Democratic have sizable Black or Hispanic populations and those two groups don’t stand out for their atheism. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/151 "2012-12-12T21:11:33Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > _starts looking for real estate agents in Eugene_ As someone who has spent a lot of time in the city in question (though I’ve never actually lived there, technically), I am saddened to tell you that it occurs only rarely. ETA: And when it does occur, it isn’t always such a good thing, as hard as that may be to believe. Unless you’re like Creed Bratton, i.e. “swing low, sweet chariots.” ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580/152 "2012-12-15T21:47:07Z")
Mike Huckabee: “We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be surprised that schools would become places of carnage?”[Cite.](http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/12/14/absence-of-god-from-schools-to-blame-for-killings-huckabee/) That someone such as Mike Huckabee can appear on a major news network and be repeated on media nationwide, as if he were a credible source for, well, anything at all, and say something like that–and furthermore that there are huge swaths of people who seem to agree that this is a legitimate concern–would seem to suggest that, yes, this is an overwhelmingly, irrationally religious country. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-religious-is-the-us/589580.md?page=7)