Religion in the Rust Belt

Religion in the Rust Belt

((Perhaps Arny may provide relevant commentary. Bret.))

Is religion the opiate of the Rust Belt masses?

>>"One of the oddities of Obama's remarks about how Pennsylvania's bitter
small town losers are taking refuge in conservative religion is how
factually off base it is. The heartland of the flourishing conservative
Protestantism in the U.S. is not the declining Rust Belt but the
relatively fast-growing South.

What's distinctive about the Rust Belt religiously is what a sizable
fraction voters, especially non-urbanites, are Catholics, whether Roman
or
Orthodox (as in the movie "The Deer Hunter," which, by the way, showed
that
back when the heavy industry towns of Pennsylvania were booming in the
1960s, guys still liked guns). Judging from enrollment at Catholic
schools, which has been steadily declining despite the huge influx from
Mexico, Catholicism is not succeeding at present at being a refuge for
either the economic losers or winners.
For example, in the 2004 election, in which economically-declining
Pennsylvania voted for Kerry while economically-growing Georgia voted for
Bush, 35% of Pennsylvania voters were Catholics versus only 10% of
Georgia
voters. Only 13% of Pennsylvania voters identified themselves as white
conservative Protestants vs. 26% of Georgia voters.

From the perspective of Obama and his San Francisco supporters, the
problem with Pennsylvania and Ohio is not religion, but that, due to high
union membership, there are still a lot of white blue collar guys who
vote
in the Democratic primaries. In contrast, Obama could sweep the South
Carolina Democratic primary because, due to low unionization, almost all
the white blue collar guys vote in the GOP primary."<<

* isteve.blogspot . com /2008/04/is-religion-opiate-of-rust-belt-masses.html

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