Surrendering the Public Square By Mark Pulliam for American Greatness
Even in the Bible Belt, traditional religious beliefs are being replaced by the social justice agenda, with no resistance from mainline faith leaders.
As I have recounted elsewhere, in 2019 my wife and I became part of the migration away from large cities to rural areas, when we moved from Austin, Texas to a small town in east Tennessee. The exodus from blue states (and from Democrat-run cities in red states) was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as freedom-loving Americans—many of whom became liberated from commuting by remote work arrangements—sought refuge from restrictive policies, shuttered schools, and urban chaos. The confluence of Zoom, COVID-related shutdowns, and widespread domestic disturbances triggered a geographic shift benefiting low-tax, fiscally sound states such as Florida, Texas, and Tennessee.
Last year, for the first time in its history, California lost population. People fled from many different places for a variety of reasons. Some pilgrims undertaking this journey into the heartland seek more than sensible government policies and affordable housing: they also often search for a traditional culture: patriotism, family values, respect for law and order, and old-fashioned religious faith—once common traits among all Americans but increasingly hard to find in America’s woke enclaves.
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The community where I live is squarely in the Bible Belt, and boasts hundreds of churches—seemingly one on every street corner. East Tennessee, settled by Scotch-Irish pioneers, is overwhelmingly Christian, and Protestant. My county supports a plethora of Baptist (predominately the Southern Baptist Convention), Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, and a host of fundamentalist denominations as well as a few Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran churches, and even an LDS chapel—but not a single synagogue or mosque (although they may be found nearby in a larger adjoining county).
