Wednesday, May 19, 2010

In The Land Of....

Growing up in NW IN, I was the land of Catholics, and Dutch Calvinists (Christian Reformed Church). Catholics got blue laws repealed, enjoyed their bingo and Knights of Columbus Poker Nights (that involved drinking! OMGosh!) and a symbiosis was reached between the Dutch and the Catholics.

When we lived in South Carolina, it was overwhelmingly the land of the Southern Baptists. Officially, no dancing, drinking, R-rated movies, liquor on Sundays, bars had to close at midnight, draconian Leviticus social laws enforced. Unofficially, "whenever 2 or 3 were gathered, one found a fifth" and we've already discussed how Red States don't practice the family values they preach.

Here in Arizona, it is a toss up between Catholics and LDS. I was doing some blogger.com searches earlier today, and found some 10,000 bloggers in Arizona listed. When I changed my search criteria to exclude "temple" but still include "location: Arizona", the total dropped to 1/2 that. Catholic churches are ubiquitous here, sure. But the subtle, white steepled LDS temples are in every little town and berg throughout the Grand Canyon state too. As you drive through one stop-light towns, you see the white steeple, and as you get closer, you read "Latter Day Saints" signs in small print. They're everywhere, both online, and off.

As long as they leave us alone, and don't try to drive their theology into politics, I am fine with so many believers living all around me. Well... as long as they leave us alone at least.... =\

2 comments:

  1. They're already driving their theology into politics...in their own state and in others.

    The best thing about Mormons? They think they'll all be reunited with their long lost ancestors and family after they die so it shouldn't really be a sin or a crime to kill 'em ;)

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  2. My wife is Jew-"ish" and so have been steeped in new ways of thinking, such as there are actually Jewish people alive on earth and not just in NYC and in movies.

    We go back to NWI and she is completely shocked - there simply aren't Jews there. I try to tell here that there were so few that even the handful I knew didn't register - it was so rare and uncommon that nobody ever talked about it as a religion.

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