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For other uses, see Bible Belt (disambiguation).
Bible Belt
Cultural region of the United States
The area roughly considered to constitute the United States Bible Belt
The area roughly considered to constitute the United States Bible Belt
Country United States
States Alabama
 Arkansas
 Georgia
 Kentucky
 Louisiana
 Mississippi
 Missouri
 North Carolina
 Oklahoma
 South Carolina
 Tennessee
 Texas
 Virginia
 West Virginia

and parts of:  Illinois
 Indiana

 Florida
 Ohio

Bible Belt is a term chiefly associated with an informal region in the Southern United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average.The region contrasts with the religiously diverse Midwest and Great Lakes, the Mormon Corridor in Utah and southern Idaho.

Whereas the states with the highest percentage of residents identifying as non-religious, relatively the West and the New England regions of the United States, (with Vermont at 37%, ranking the highest). The Bible Belt state of Alabama it is just 12%.[1] and Tennessee has the highest proportion of Evangelical Protestants, at 52%.[2]

The Evangelical influence is strongest in northern Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, southern and western Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, and East Texas.

The earliest known usage of the term "Bible Belt" was by American journalist and social commentator H. L. Mencken, who in 1924 wrote in the Chicago Daily Tribune: "The old game, I suspect, is beginning to play out in the Bible Belt."[3] In 1927, Mencken claimed the term as his invention.[4]

In the United States

Geography

The name "Bible Belt" has been applied historically to the South and parts of the Midwest, but is more commonly identified with the South. In a 1961 study, Wilbur Zelinsky delineated the region as the area in which Protestant denominations, especially Southern Baptist, Methodist, and evangelical, are the predominant religious affiliations. The region thus defined included most of the Southern United States, including most of Texas and Oklahoma, and in the states south of the Ohio River, and extending east to include central West Virginia and Virginia, from the Shenandoah Valley southward into Southside Virginia and North Carolina. In addition, the Bible Belt covers most of Missouri and Kentucky and southern parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. On the other hand, areas in the South which are not considered part of the Bible Belt include heavily Catholic Southern Louisiana, central and southern Florida, which have been settled mainly by immigrants and Americans from elsewhere in the country, and overwhelmingly Hispanic South Texas. A 1978 study by Charles Heatwole identified the Bible Belt as the region dominated by 24 fundamentalist Protestant denominations, corresponding to essentially the same area mapped by Zelinsky.[5]

According to Stephen W. Tweedie, an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography at Oklahoma State University, the Bible Belt is now viewed in terms of numerical concentration of the audience for religious television.[6] He finds two belts: one more eastern that stretches from Florida, (excluding Miami, Tampa and South Florida), through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, the Carolinas, and into Southside Virginia; and another concentrated in Texas (excluding El Paso, and South Texas), Arkansas, Louisiana, (excluding New Orleans and Acadiana), Oklahoma, Missouri (excluding St. Louis), Kansas, and Mississippi.[7] "[H]is research also broke the Bible Belt into two core regions, a western region and an eastern region. Tweedie's western Bible Belt was focused on a core that extended from Little Rock, Arkansas to Tulsa, Oklahoma. His eastern Bible Belt was focused on a core that included the major population centers of Virginia and North Carolina.[8]

Bible-minded cities map

A study was commissioned by the American Bible Society to survey the importance of the Bible in the metropolitan areas of the United States. The report was based on 42,855 interviews conducted between 2005 and 2012. It determined the 10 most "Bible-minded" cities were Knoxville, Tennessee; Shreveport, Louisiana; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; Springfield, Missouri; Charlotte, North Carolina; Lynchburg, Virginia; Huntsville-Decatur, Alabama; and Charleston, West Virginia.[9]


By state

Percentage of respondents in the USA stating that religion is "very important" or "somewhat important" to their lives, 2014[10]
Proportion of Evangelical Protestants per state in the American South[11]
State Baptist Pentecostal Restorationist Presbyterian Other Total Share indicating that
religion is "important"[10]
 Alabama 31% 5% 3% 2% 8% 49% 90%
 Arkansas 25% 5% 5% 2% 9% 46% 86%
 Delaware 7% 1% 3% 1% 3% 15% 77%
 Washington, D.C. 2% 1% 1% 1% 3% 8% 71%
 Florida 8% 4% 2% 1% 9% 24% 78%
 Georgia 21% 4% 2% 1% 10% 38% 84%
 Kentucky 29% 7% 3% 1% 9% 49% 86%
 Louisiana 16% 3% 1% <1% 7% 27% 90%
 Maryland 5% 3% 1% <1% 9% 18% 75%
 Mississippi 26% 4% 2% 1% 8% 41% 89%
 Missouri 15% 6% 3% 1% 11% 36% 82%
 North Carolina 20% 4% 1% 1% 9% 35% 84%
 Oklahoma 23% 6% 4% <1% 14% 47% 87%
 South Carolina 22% 4% 1% 1% 7% 35% 85%
 Tennessee 33% 4% 6% 2% 7% 52% 89%
 Texas 14% 4% 2% <1% 11% 31% 86%
 Virginia 15% 5% <1% 1% 9% 30% 81%
 West Virginia 19% 7% 2% <1% 11% 39% 86%


Other Bible Belts in the United States

In addition to the South, there is a smaller Bible Belt in West Michigan, centered on the heavily Dutch-influenced cities of Holland and Grand Rapids. Christian colleges in that region include Calvin College, Hope College, Cornerstone University, Grace Bible College, and Kuyper College. Much like the South, West Michigan is generally fiscally and socially conservative.

There is also a Bible belt in the western suburbs of Chicago (especially in DuPage County), centered on Wheaton. Christian colleges in that region include Wheaton College, North Central College, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Elmhurst College. Christian Publishing houses in that region include Good News Publishers, Intervarsity Press, and Tyndale House. Carol Stream is home to the headquarters of Christianity Today. DuPage County has historically been a fiscally and socially conservative Republican stronghold, though in recent years has become more politically moderate especially on issues of race and immigration,[12][13] and in 2016 Donald Trump was the first Republican nominee for President since 1912 to get less than 40% of the vote. Many DuPage County communities which normally vote Republican did not support Donald Trump in 2016.[14] In December 2019, shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump, Christianity Today published a controversial editorial calling for the removal of Trump from office, citing the need to hold him to the same standards to which they held Bill Clinton in the 1990s (who was the last Democratic nominee for President to get less than 40% of the DuPage County vote).[15]

History

During the colonial period (1607–1776), the South was a stronghold of the Anglican church. Its transition to a stronghold of non-Anglican Protestantism occurred gradually over the next century as a series of religious revival movements, many associated with the Baptist denomination, gained great popularity in the region.[16]

The northern colonial Bible Belt (especially New England with its Puritan heritage) frequently performed missionary work in the South. "The centre of Particular Baptist activity in early America was in the Middle Colonies. In 1707 five churches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were united to form the Philadelphia Baptist Association, and through the association they embarked upon vigorous missionary activity. By 1760 the Philadelphia association included churches located in the present states of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia; and by 1767 further multiplication of churches had necessitated the formation of two subsidiary associations, the Warren in New England and the Ketochton in Virginia. The Philadelphia association also provided leadership in organizing the Charleston Association in the Carolinas in 1751."[17]

An influential figure was Shubal Stearns: "Shubael Stearns, a New England Separate Baptist, migrated to Sandy Creek, North Carolina, in 1755 and initiated a revival that quickly penetrated the entire Piedmont region. The churches he organized were brought together in 1758 to form the Sandy Creek Association".[17] Stearns was brother-in-law of Daniel Marshall, who was born in Windsor, Connecticut and "is generally considered the first great Baptist leader in Georgia. He founded Kiokee Baptist Church, the oldest continuing Baptist congregation in the state".[18] Also, Wait Palmer, of Toland, Connecticut,[19]: 84–85  may have influenced African American Christianity in the South: "The Silver Bluff, South Carolina, revival was a seminal development, whose role among blacks rivalled that played by the Sandy Creek revival of the Separate Baptists, to which it was indirectly related. It was probably the same Wait Palmer who had baptized Shubal Stearns in 1751 who came to Silver Bluff in 1775, baptizing and constituting a church. Abraham Marshall, who encouraged the later offshoots, was a Separate Baptist of the Sandy Creek school. The revival at the Silver Bluff plantation of George Galphin (some twelve miles from Augusta, Georgia) had brought David George to the Afro-Baptist faith and had provided a ministry for George Liele".[19]: 188 

According to Thomas S. Kidd, "As early as 1758, Sandy Creek missionaries helped organize a slave congregation, the Bluestone Church, on the plantation of William Byrd III, which may have been the first independently functioning African American church in North America. The church did not last long, but it reflected the Baptists' commitment to evangelizing African Americans".[20]: 249  According to Gayraud S. Wilmore, "The preaching of New England Congregationalists such as Jonathan Edwards about the coming millennium, and his conviction that Christians were called to prepare for it, reached the slaves through the far-ranging missionary work of white evangelists such as Shubal Stearns, Wait Palmer, and Matthew Moore - all of whom left Congregationalism and became Separatist Baptist preachers in the plantation country of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia".[21]: 168 

Buckle

A billboard near the center of Alabama

Several locations are occasionally referred to as "the Buckle of the Bible Belt":

Political and cultural context

There has been research that links evangelical Protestantism with social conservatism.[27] In 1950, President Harry S. Truman told Catholic leaders he wanted to send an ambassador to the Vatican. Truman said the leading Democrats in Congress approved, but they warned him, "it would defeat Democratic Senators and Congressmen in the Bible Belt."[28][clarification needed]

In presidential elections, the Bible Belt states of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas have voted for the Republican candidate in all elections since 1980; Oklahoma has supported the Republican presidential candidate in every election since 1968. Other Bible Belt states have voted for the Republican presidential candidate in the majority of elections since 1980, but have gone to the Democratic candidate either once or twice since then. However, with the exception of Mississippi, historical geographer Barry Vann shows that counties in the upland areas of the Appalachians and the Ozarks have a more conservative voting pattern than the counties located in the coastal plains.[29]

Outside the United States

Australia

In Australia, the term "Bible Belt" has been used to refer to areas within individual cities, which have a high concentration of Christians, usually centralised around a megachurch, for example:[30]

Toowoomba city in Queensland has long been regarded as fertile ground for Christian fundamentalist right-wing movements [32] that adhere to biblical literalism, particularly those within the Pentecostal and charismatic stream of Christianity. This was exemplified by the highly publicised rise and subsequent fall of Howard Carter[33] and the Logos Foundation in the 1980s. The Logos Foundation and other similar movements that have followed it, operate in a controlling, authoritarian and almost cultish manner, contributing to their notoriety.[32] Other similarly conservative Pentecostal churches within the city have, since that time, banded together into a loose federation known as the Toowoomba Christian Leaders' Network.[34] (note - most traditional church denominations have their own, separate ecumenical group) This network views itself as having a divine mission to 'take the city for the Lord' and as such, endorses elements of religious right-wing political advocacy, such as the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL).[citation needed]

ACL's former managing director who was raised in the Logos Foundation and is a former Toowoomba City councillor is Lyle Shelton. These church groups are strongly associated with North American trends such as the New Apostolic Reformation, Dominion theology, Five-fold ministry thinking, Kingdom Now theology and revivalism. They support the achievement of a type of theocratic society where conservative and literal interpretations of the bible are the dominant drivers of government, education, the Arts, the media and entertainment. Churches involved in this group currently include the successor organization to the Logos Foundation, the Toowoomba City Church, along with the Range Christian Fellowship, Spring Street Assembly of God, Christian Outreach Centre, Hume Ridge Church of Christ, Revival Ministries of Australia Shiloh Centre, the Edge Christian Centre and many others.[citation needed]

Canada

The province of Saskatchewan has been referred to as Canada's Bible Belt with a significant Catholic, Anabaptist population and other Protestants.[35] Certain areas of Canada's east coast region, such as the province of New Brunswick, also contain significant populations of Catholic, Baptist, Anglican and United faith adherents, up to 85% overall.[36]

Estonia

Census results show religious belief in the country is more prevalent in the east running from north to south along the border with Russia, particularly in those areas with large populations of Russian Orthodox, Estonian Orthodox and Orthodox Old Believers.

Finland

Conservative Laestadianism, a Finnish Lutheran revival, is widespread in northern (Northern Ostrobothnia and Lapland (Finland)) and central parts (Northern Savonia) of Finland.[37]

Germany

Rural portions of Bavaria, approximately stretching from Franconia into Württemberg, constitute Germany's Bible Belt with mostly Catholics[38], some Lutherans and Reformed Protestants. An area in Erzgebirge in Saxony has been described also as the "Saxon Bible Belt" with a notable evangelical Protestant/Christian fundamentalist/free church community, as well as some conservative Lutheran parishes that are opposed to same-sex marriage. Nevertheless, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony approved church resolutions regarding the issue regardless of opinions within those parishes.[39][40][41][42][43]

Lithuania

Among its Baltic neighbors Lithuania is in general much more religious, but even in this context, Vilnius with its many churches and adjacent region (Vilnius district and Šalčininkai district municipalities) with larger number of Lithuanian Poles is the most religious region of Lithuania. Both Šalčininkai and Vilnius district municipalities by the ruling Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance were declared as guarded and ruled by Jesus Christ.[44].

Netherlands

The Bible Belt of the Netherlands stretches from Zeeland, through the West-Betuwe and Veluwe, to the northern parts of the province Overijssel. In this region, orthodox Calvinists prevail.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, Mount Roskill, Auckland, contains the highest number of churches per capita in the country, and is the home of several Christian political candidates.[45] The electorate was one of the last in the country to go "wet", in 1999, having formerly been a dry area where the selling of alcohol was prohibited.[46]

At the 2013 New Zealand census, the Mangere–Otahuhu local board area of Auckland had the highest concentration of Christians in New Zealand, with 67.7 percent of the local board's 71,000 residents identifying as such.[47]

In contrast to other bible belts, both areas tend to vote for left-wing candidates and are both currently represented in parliament by the governing centre-left Labour Party.[citation needed]

Norway

The Bible Belt of Norway is located mainly in the western and southern parts of the country, and contains numerous devout Lutherans.

Poland

South and East parts of Poland are much more religious than North and West.[48] See Poland A and B.

Slovakia

In the eastern and northern parts of Slovakia, Christians comprise a majority, in some towns and villages almost 100%.[49]

Soviet Union

Before its independence, Soviet Ukraine was known as the Bible Belt of the Soviet Union with a significant proportion of Baptists.[50]

Sweden

The area normally called the Bible Belt of Sweden is centered on Jönköping in southern Sweden and contains numerous free churches. There are also numerous conservative Lutheran Laestadians in the Torne valley area in the far north of the country.

United Kingdom and Ireland

In Northern Ireland, the area in County Antrim stretching from roughly Ballymoney to Larne and centred in the area of Ballymena is often referred to as a Bible Belt. This is because the area is heavily Protestant with a large evangelical community. From 1970 to 2010, the MP for North Antrim was Ian Paisley, a Free Presbyterian minister well known for his theological fundamentalism. The town of Ballymena, the largest town in the constituency, is often referred to as the "buckle" of the Bible Belt. In the Republic of Ireland, County Wicklow and western parts of County Cork have the highest population of Protestants.[51]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Unaffiliated". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. May 11, 2015.
  2. ^ "Adults in Tennessee". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. May 11, 2015.
  3. ^ Fred R. Shapiro (ed.). Yale Book of Quotations. Yale University Press (2006). ISBN 978-0-300-10798-2.
  4. ^ H. L. Mencken letter to Charles Green Shaw, 1927 Dec. 2 . Charles Green Shaw papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. See also, http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/06/human-race-is-incurably-idiotic.html
  5. ^ Barry Vann (2008), In search of Ulster-Scots land: the birth and geotheological imagings of a transatlantic people, 1603-1703, Univ of South Carolina Press, ISBN 1-57003-708-6, ISBN 978-1-57003-708-5. Pages 138-140.
  6. ^ Carney, edited by George O. (1995). Fast food, stock cars and rock'n'roll: place and space in American pop culture. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 131. ISBN 9780847680801. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ Tweedie, S.W. (1978) Viewing the Bible Belt. Journal of Popular Culture 11; 865-76
  8. ^ Rosenberg, Matt. "The Bible Belt Extends Throughout the American South (And Perhaps Beyond?)". About.com. About Education. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  9. ^ "America's Most and Least Bible-Minded Cities". Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Importance of religion by state Pew forum (sum of "very important" and "something important")
  11. ^ https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/state/
  12. ^ "White mothers in Wheaton come together to design Black Lives Matter signs". Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  13. ^ "Roskam on immigration: 'We want those very people among us'". Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  14. ^ "Mapping the suburban vote for Trump, Clinton". Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  15. ^ "Trump Should Be Removed from Office". Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  16. ^ Murray, William H. Jeynes ; foreword by William J. (2009). A call for character education and prayer in the schools. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-0313351044. Retrieved June 11, 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ a b "Baptist - History, Beliefs, Denominations, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  18. ^ "Daniel Marshall (1706-1784) - New Georgia Encyclopedia".
  19. ^ a b Sobel, Mechal (1988). Trabelin' on: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691006032.
  20. ^ Kidd, Thomas S. (2007). The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300148251.
  21. ^ Wilmore, Gayraud S. (2004). Pragmatic Spirituality: The Christian Faith through an Africentric Lens. New York University Press. ISBN 9781479884247.
  22. ^ "Encyclopedia of the Great Plains - ABILENE, TEXAS". unl.edu. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  23. ^ Guier, Cindy Stooksbury; Finch, Jackie Sheckler (2007). Insiders' Guide to Nashville (6th ed.). pp. 13, 35, 396.
  24. ^ "Nashville Area Churches". NashCity.com. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
  25. ^ Miller, Rachel L (April 14, 2008). "Nashville: Sophisticated Southern City with a Country Edge". RoadandTravel.com. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
  26. ^ "Churches in Greenville"> https://www.churchangel.com/WEBSC/greenville.htm
  27. ^ http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/6/8/0/6/p68068_index.html[dead link]
  28. ^ Amanda Smith, Hostage of Fortune (2001) p. 604
  29. ^ Barry Vann, In Search of Ulster Scots Land; Barry Vann, "Natural Liberty in the Bible Belt," Nomocracy in Politics (February 2014), http://nomocracyinpolitics.com/2014/02/03/natural-liberty-in-the-bible-belt-an-explanation-of-conservative-voting-patterns-in-southern-appalachia-by-barry-a-vann/ Archived February 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  30. ^ "Bible Belt wants to tighten a grip on power". The Age. Melbourne. September 15, 2004.
  31. ^ "Perth suburbs by religion: evangelicals head to the northern suburbs". The West Australian. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  32. ^ a b https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:8027/HARRISON_eprint_.pdf
  33. ^ http://www.lifemessenger.org/HTML/AboutUs/TheMessenger/TheStory.php[permanent dead link]
  34. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  35. ^ Wells, Kristopher. "Progressive Albertans are challenging province's Bible Belt stereotypes". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  36. ^ "New Brunswick Population 2020". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  37. ^ "FENNIA 2002". www.helsinki.fi. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  38. ^ "According to a 2011 census, Bavaria is still predominatly Catholic".
  39. ^ "Erklärung 144 sächsischer Kirchgemeinden zum familiären Zusammenleben im Pfarrhaus" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 6, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  40. ^ "Evangelikale in Sachsen - Ein Bericht". Weiterdenken - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Sachsen.
  41. ^ "Jennifer Stange: Evangelikale in Sachsen, Dresden 2014" (PDF).
  42. ^ Evlks.de:„Segnung von Paaren in Eingetragener Lebenspartnerschaft“ in Sachsen möglich – Beschluss der Kirchenleitung vom 27. Oktober 2016 Archived October 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  43. ^ "Sächsische Kirche ermöglicht Segnung Homosexueller im Gottesdienst". www.evangelisch.de.
  44. ^ Vilniaus ir Šalčininkų rajonuose naujai išrinktoms taryboms ir toliaus vadovaus Jėzus Kristus
  45. ^ "New Zealand". emigratenz.org. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  46. ^ "Tawa ditches prohibition a century after banning alcohol - 150 years of news". Stuff. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  47. ^ "Table 33: Religious affiliation (total responses) by territorial authority area, Auckland local board area, and sex – 2013 Census QuickStats about culture and identity". Statistics New Zealand. April 15, 2014. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  48. ^ Wojciech Sadlon (ed.), Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae in Polonia AD 2018
  49. ^ Statisticky urad SR (2001). "Religious statistics in Slovakia" (PDF). None. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2011.
  50. ^ Wanne, Catherine (2006). "Evangelicalism and the Resurgence of Religion in Ukraine" (PDF). The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research.
  51. ^ Gonzo, Belfast (July 29, 2005). "More news from the Bible Belt…".

Further reading

  • Balmer, Randall H. (2002). Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism. Westminster John Knox Press.
  • Christine Leigh H, (1997), Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt. Knopf.
  • Denman, Stan. (2004). Political Playing for the Soul of the American South: Theater and the Maintenance of Cultural Hegemony in the American Bible Belt. Southern Quarterly, 42(3), 64-72.
  • Hayes, Turner Elizabeth. (1997). Women, Culture and Community: Religion and Reform in Galveston 1880-1920, Oxford University Press.
  • Heatwole, Charles A. (1978). The Bible Belt; a problem of regional definition. Journal of Geography, 77, 50-55.
  • Hill, Samuel S., Lippy, Charles H. & Wilson, Charles R. (2005). Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South. Mercer University Press.
  • Lippy, Charles, H. (1993). Religion in South Carolina. University of South Carolina.
  • Marsden, George M. (1982). Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925. Oxford University Press.
  • Moran, Jeffrey P. (2004). The Scopes Trial and Southern Fundamentalism in Black and White: Race, Region, and Religion. Journal of Southern History, 70(1), 95.
  • Park, Chris C. (1994). Sacred Worlds: An Introduction to Geography and Religion. Routledge.
  • Pettersson, Thorleif & Hamberg, Eva M. (1997). Denominational Pluralism and Church Membership in Contemporary Sweden. Journal of Empirical Theology, 10(2), 61-78.
  • Sparks, Randy J. (2001). Religion in Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi for the Mississippi Historical Society.
  • Stacey, Williams A. & Shupe, Anson. (1984). Religious Values and Religiosity in the Textbook Adoption Controversy in Texas, 1981. Review of Religious Research. 25(4), 321-333.
  • Tweedie, Stephen W. (1978). Viewing the Bible Belt. THE Journal of Popular Culture, 11(4), 865-876.
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