Because I just did today. It is not a very comfortable place, to be honest. Bible quotes fill the billboards, complete with instilling fear. One church had three full-sized billboards withing a hundred yards. All containing Bible quotes and the third had big bolded capital letters saying "OBEY GOD'S WORD." And underneath it, directions to the Church. Is this really a good way to spend the peoples donated money? Is that what you would want the church to spend your money on? What do you guys think?

... Anyone live it? Drive through it ever?

... (snip) ...
... and twenty minutes was spent building up to the giving of tythes. Seems to be a lot of utilization of fear and a promise of the gift of rewards. They like to say things such as your tythes will enable us to let everyone know who we are and we can get more people to come and the crowd cheers. Again, seems to just be a status symbol and a constant search for more people to join and give their money . Of course this is just my opinion, but it is the sense I get. ...

Because I just did today. It is not a very comfortable place, to be honest. Bible quotes fill the billboards, complete with instilling fear. One church had three full-sized billboards withing a hundred yards. All containing Bible quotes and the third had big bolded capital letters saying "OBEY GOD'S WORD." And underneath it, directions to the Church. Is this really a good way to spend the peoples donated money? Is that what you would want the church to spend your money on? What do you guys think?

I saw one church that looked like a Las Vegas casino. It was huge, and in such a small town. It was complete with a huge 30 foot tall flashing sign, wrapped around a big screen TV. It just boggles my mind that such a small community could generate that much in donations. It also seems like what's important is the size of the Church and not the actions. Kind of a status symbol. I am not sure why else they would need to build such over-sized churches. And I don't want to hear because it gets alot of people. Obviously it gets more than most, but there are Churches around every bend. And I do know from experience because I was forced to attend a smaller church down there with an ex-girlfriend and twenty minutes was spent building up to the giving of tythes. Seems to be a lot of utilization of fear and a promise of the gift of rewards. They like to say things such as your tythes will enable us to let everyone know who we are and we can get more people to come and the crowd cheers. Again, seems to just be a status symbol and a constant search for more people to join and give their money . Of course this is just my opinion, but it is the sense I get.

The abortion signs were very scary too. I distinctly remember one-"Smile. Your mother chose life." They were everywhere too, in some manner or another.

I understand that this is all just free speech, and I am not advocating against it. My point is that I spent only about two hours in what I would consider the northern regions of the belt. And it isn't hard to recognize the fear and socially acceptable rules that must be instilled by religion in everyone who occupies any part of the region. I can see how it would be very hard to break free of the social norms even if you wanted to. I think it is important to realize the culture and environments that many Christians grow up in. Thoughts? Again, I would like to stress that I am not trying to "bring down the belt' or something. Just something I noticed and was curious of what some of your thoughts or experiences might be concerning the subject of the Bible Belt. Anyone live it? Drive through it ever?

Because I just did today. It is not a very comfortable place, to be honest. Bible quotes fill the billboards, complete with instilling fear. One church had three full-sized billboards withing a hundred yards. All containing Bible quotes and the third had big bolded capital letters saying "OBEY GOD'S WORD." And underneath it, directions to the Church. Is this really a good way to spend the peoples donated money? Is that what you would want the church to spend your money on? What do you guys think?

I saw one church that looked like a Las Vegas casino. It was huge, and in such a small town. It was complete with a huge 30 foot tall flashing sign, wrapped around a big screen TV. It just boggles my mind that such a small community could generate that much in donations. It also seems like what's important is the size of the Church and not the actions. Kind of a status symbol. I am not sure why else they would need to build such over-sized churches. And I don't want to hear because it gets alot of people. Obviously it gets more than most, but there are Churches around every bend. And I do know from experience because I was forced to attend a smaller church down there with an ex-girlfriend and twenty minutes was spent building up to the giving of tythes. Seems to be a lot of utilization of fear and a promise of the gift of rewards. They like to say things such as your tythes will enable us to let everyone know who we are and we can get more people to come and the crowd cheers. Again, seems to just be a status symbol and a constant search for more people to join and give their money . Of course this is just my opinion, but it is the sense I get.

The abortion signs were very scary too. I distinctly remember one-"Smile. Your mother chose life." They were everywhere too, in some manner or another.

I understand that this is all just free speech, and I am not advocating against it. My point is that I spent only about two hours in what I would consider the northern regions of the belt. And it isn't hard to recognize the fear and socially acceptable rules that must be instilled by religion in everyone who occupies any part of the region. I can see how it would be very hard to break free of the social norms even if you wanted to. I think it is important to realize the culture and environments that many Christians grow up in. Thoughts? Again, I would like to stress that I am not trying to "bring down the belt' or something. Just something I noticed and was curious of what some of your thoughts or experiences might be concerning the subject of the Bible Belt. Anyone live it? Drive through it ever?

I live here too. Sometimes it is a little freaky to imagine people compelled to post the insanity on some of these signs. I personally can't imagine it being helpful to anyone. It's just self-validation I think.

Other times they aren't as freaky as they are well intended reminders of clever word play.

Personally, I think the black background, white text one-liners, signed by God, are absolute genius! I've seen them all over the country at random. That's the beauty of them. Simple, concise, non-denominational...sums it up very nicely I think.

Click to view attachment

I took four months riding a motorcycle from Atlantic to Pacific and back. Rte 50 from Ocean City Maryland and all the way through until Colorado. I saw a sign in Missouri, or maybe Texas panhandle, or it could have been in Oklahoma (on the way back east). It was the first time I had ever seen this sign: CH--CH. What's missing? (U R)

Has anyone else ever seen this sign?

The abortion signs were very scary too. I distinctly remember one-"Smile. Your mother chose life." They were everywhere too, in some manner or another.

I understand that this is all just free speech, and I am not advocating against it. My point is that I spent only about two hours in what I would consider the northern regions of the belt. And it isn't hard to recognize the fear and socially acceptable rules that must be instilled by religion in everyone who occupies any part of the region. I can see how it would be very hard to break free of the social norms even if you wanted to. I think it is important to realize the culture and environments that many Christians grow up in. Thoughts? Again, I would like to stress that I am not trying to "bring down the belt' or something. Just something I noticed and was curious of what some of your thoughts or experiences might be concerning the subject of the Bible Belt. Anyone live it? Drive through it ever?

That took me a while to get! But I give credit where credit is due, and that friends, is very clever. I am positive it has the effect the purveyors intended.

You are not too bad to come in; You are not too good to stay out.

Ask about our pray-as-you-go plan.

No matter how much you nurse a grudge it won't get better.

If some people lived up to their ideals they would be stooping.

[at an Arizona church in August] You think it's hot HERE?

Will it take six strong pall-bearers to bring you back?

If you can't sleep, don't count sheep. Talk to the Shepherd.

Ha! I did not know these signs were only in the Bible belt.

I have seen them all my life, I thought they were the norm. . .

Actually, I have seen MANY up north and out west, sometimes in surprisingly liberal areas.

In Australia, the term usually refers to tracts within individual cities, for example the north-western suburbs of Sydney focusing on Baulkham Hills and the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide focusing on Paradise, Modbury and Golden Grove, though there is also a section of south-eastern Queensland comprising the towns of Laidley, Gatton and Toowoomba which is referred to as the Bible Belt.

In Canada, the term is also sometimes used to describe several disparate regions which have a higher than average level of church attendance. These include the majority of rural southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, parts of southern Manitoba, the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia and the Saint John River Valley of New Brunswick.

In China, Nanjing City is regarded as the area with the country's highest number of Christians since 1949. Amity Publishing House, a Christian publisher is based in this city.

In Denmark, the area of northwestern Jutland is often mentioned as a Bible Belt. The region has a large number of members of the Lutheran movement called "Indre Mission".

In Finland, the rural areas of Ostrobothnia and Southern Ostrobothnia are sometimes considered a Bible Belt.

In France, Brittany and Burgundy are relative strongholds of the Roman Catholic faith, while the Cévennes region contains a substantial population of Protestants.

In India, the north eastern states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and the hill districts of Manipur form a continuous Bible Belt. Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya are India's only Christian dominated states. In fact in Nagaland, Christians constitute 90.02% (2001 census) of the population, with 80% professing the Baptist faith and thereby earning the sobriquet of The most Baptist state in the world. The Bible belt has emerged as one of the major areas of the world that sends out missionaries, particularly to South Asia and South East Asia.

The Netherlands has a Bible Belt (Bijbelgordel) as well, stretching from Zeeland to Overijssel. Immigrants from this area to the U.S. formed the Christian Reformed Church in North America. See Bible Belt (Netherlands)

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.

In Northern Ireland, the region centered on the northern part of County Antrim is often referred to as Northern Ireland's Bible Belt. This is because the area is heavily Protestant with a large evangelical community. The MP for this constituency is Ian Paisley, a Free Presbyterian Reverend well known for his theological fundamentalism. The town of Ballymena, is the largest town in the constituency, is often referred to as the "buckle" of the Bible Belt.

In Norway, the Bible Belt covers the south-western coast from Agder to Møre og Romsdal. In these areas the concervative branch of the Church of Norway has a stronghold and the members usually assosiate themselves to Indremisjonen (Inner Mission). There are also numerous Pentecostals and members of the Free Churches, but these movements are also strongly represented in the rest of the country. The Bible Belt in Norway often reflects the support for the Christian Democratic Party (Norway).

In Sweden, there is a Bible Belt covering the area around the city of Jönköping and Gothenburg, with a particular high concentration of non-conformists (Protestant congregations not affiliated with the Church of Sweden), especially Pentecostals and Congregationalists - and strong support for the Christian Democrats.

I drove through it once in the late 80's .... scary !!

Because I just did today. It is not a very comfortable place, to be honest. Bible quotes fill the billboards, complete with instilling fear. One church had three full-sized billboards withing a hundred yards. All containing Bible quotes and the third had big bolded capital letters saying "OBEY GOD'S WORD." And underneath it, directions to the Church. Is this really a good way to spend the peoples donated money? Is that what you would want the church to spend your money on? What do you guys think?

I saw one church that looked like a Las Vegas casino. It was huge, and in such a small town. It was complete with a huge 30 foot tall flashing sign, wrapped around a big screen TV. It just boggles my mind that such a small community could generate that much in donations. It also seems like what's important is the size of the Church and not the actions. Kind of a status symbol. I am not sure why else they would need to build such over-sized churches. And I don't want to hear because it gets alot of people. Obviously it gets more than most, but there are Churches around every bend. And I do know from experience because I was forced to attend a smaller church down there with an ex-girlfriend and twenty minutes was spent building up to the giving of tythes. Seems to be a lot of utilization of fear and a promise of the gift of rewards. They like to say things such as your tythes will enable us to let everyone know who we are and we can get more people to come and the crowd cheers. Again, seems to just be a status symbol and a constant search for more people to join and give their money . Of course this is just my opinion, but it is the sense I get.

The abortion signs were very scary too. I distinctly remember one-"Smile. Your mother chose life." They were everywhere too, in some manner or another.

I understand that this is all just free speech, and I am not advocating against it. My point is that I spent only about two hours in what I would consider the northern regions of the belt. And it isn't hard to recognize the fear and socially acceptable rules that must be instilled by religion in everyone who occupies any part of the region. I can see how it would be very hard to break free of the social norms even if you wanted to. I think it is important to realize the culture and environments that many Christians grow up in. Thoughts? Again, I would like to stress that I am not trying to "bring down the belt' or something. Just something I noticed and was curious of what some of your thoughts or experiences might be concerning the subject of the Bible Belt. Anyone live it? Drive through it ever?

I live in the Bible Belt as well. Though I am not Christian, I honestly don't find any of their slogans, Bible quotes, and advertisements the least bit intimidating. Then again, I've lived here most of my life, and I just sort of let it "go in one ear and out the other".

There is pressure from all people around you though, not intentionally I don't think. At least in my case anyway. If I am heard cussing my family will say "You're not being a very good Christian!" Even though they are very aware that I am Muslim. Or if we are discussing a religious topic and my opinion differs from the majority they will say "The Bible doesn't say that." Despite even that, it still doesn't really bother me.

Amazing! Do you wear a veil? Here, from the other side of the world, I would have thought that the Southern American 'Bible Belt' would be a Muslim free zone

I have heard that people in very small towns will wonder about you if you don't attend church, and not because they think you are a heathen.
It's because they wonder how you spend your free time. In other words, there is no other form of social entertainment around in these areas.

I sure do . I agree, it is a place you don't expect to find Muslims lol, but we're everywhere .




That is so true. When I was younger I went to the church on Monday's and Wednesday's just to have something to do lol.

In Australia, the term usually refers to tracts within individual cities, for example the north-western suburbs of Sydney focusing on Baulkham Hills
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_belt

I live here too. Sometimes it is a little freaky to imagine people compelled to post the insanity on some of these signs. I personally can't imagine it being helpful to anyone. It's just self-validation I think.

Other times they aren't as freaky as they are well intended reminders of clever word play.

Personally, I think the black background, white text one-liners, signed by God, are absolute genius! I've seen them all over the country at random. That's the beauty of them. Simple, concise, non-denominational...sums it up very nicely I think.

Click to view attachment

Abortion itself is a scarier concept than a sign which simply offers a pro life view regarding it.

There are many who are simply not believers that live in the Bible Belt. As norwood said many even only have religion on Sundays. You do pose interesting questions though regarding fear and socially acceptable rules and how difficult it would be to go against the norm. On the other hand what about the social cohesiveness if any that it provides? I am sure there is as much drinking, loving strangers for the night, and drugging going on there as anywhere else.

I would like to see a serious study that looks at both sides and what the opinion of the researches would be. I live just outside the Bible Belt being in South Texas which is predominately Catholic. One thing though we are lucky with is that country music is just as popular here as it is there (^__^)

Hillsong has a nice choir that is for sure. Darlene Zschech is also great. The church though is rather huge if you want to see some tongue talking I would recommend a smaller venue since you can be closer to those experiencing the Spirit in this manner. Not sure how the mega church environment of Hillsong plays into that maybe someone here is a member there?

I live here too. Sometimes it is a little freaky to imagine people compelled to post the insanity on some of these signs. I personally can't imagine it being helpful to anyone. It's just self-validation I think.

Other times they aren't as freaky as they are well intended reminders of clever word play.

Personally, I think the black background, white text one-liners, signed by God, are absolute genius! I've seen them all over the country at random. That's the beauty of them. Simple, concise, non-denominational...sums it up very nicely I think.

Click to view attachment

God or no God you should love your neighbor I think the point that the sign is God has to tell you to because otherwise you can't make the choice for yourself. Which is yet another reason I stepped away from Christianty everything points to make people believe that without God you can only do bad.

One of the people I work with is a Hillsong person. From what I can tell they don't focus a great deal on Tongues and the like, but as with all Charismatics there is a large focus on the Spirit. I'm not a big fan of that, really. The message of the Bible seems to get over-simplified and watered down. The parable of the sower text here was reduced to something along the lines of :

*in an American accent - the pastor, Brian Houston is originally from the States*
"You are the seed, God has planted you and now you must grow. But the devil is there to tempt you, he is the weeds, trying to choke your path. You've gotta break through those weeds, strive towards the sunshine of God that is growing just beyond those weeds. Shrug off those weeds and grow, grow, GROW. You gotta push, push through those weeds......".

Now, let's be honest - if you've read the parable of the sower, I'm sure you can see more of worth in the passage than this one-sentence statement. And Hillsong dedicated a whole sermon to this one idea. Just way way way too shallow in my humble and most biased opinion

Hillsong's music may be catchy, may be played by good musicians, but I also find most of them to be extremely shallow and focused on self rather than God - the subject matter is always "I'm so awesome now I've found God, God is in my heart and I love him so" - paraphrased, but pretty much sums up the content of every Hillsong piece ever written. I prefer to listen to songs that have a little more spiritual meat to them, focused more on God than on my own feelings about God.

Hillsong is a massive church, one of only two mega-churches in Australia (that I am aware of, that is). But since there are only two venues where they have their services, and one of them is only a small inner-city venue (the main venue is out in Baulkham Hills), numerically speaking there aren't a great deal of Hillsong believers compared to other branches of Christianity, which never get as many people to churches, but because there are so many more venues they outnumber them.

Just a bit of inside information.

God or no God you should love your neighbor I think the point that the sign is God has to tell you to because otherwise you can't make the choice for yourself. Which is yet another reason I stepped away from Christianty everything points to make people believe that without God you can only do bad.

I drove through it once in the late 80's .... scary !!

If I ever drove through the Bible Belt I'd probably have Bibles thrown at my car..... from what I hear, at least.

Which is yet another reason I stepped away from Christianty everything points to make people believe that without God you can only do bad.

Well, I am a native "Bible-Belter"...try being a Deist in the belt...it makes for some interesting times...but I will say the the large majority of the Christians here are just plain good folk, but as was said before, a bit insular. One observation that I have made it that the churches and membership seem to be slowly shrinking...I can take you to quite a few closed churches around here and the "house organs" of alot of the denominations are fretting about this and offering suggestions to counteract the problem. Others just say it is a sign we are in the end times...LOL I perfer the first take on the matter and applaud them that they at least try!

Welcome to my world.. now trying being a Pagan here

I live in the Bible Belt. I know it sounds just AWFUL, but there's this billboard not too far from my house that says "Jesus Christ is Lord". . .and I really want to get some spray paint and put "of the dance" underneath it. . .its so bad of me. . .and I really must stop thinking about it. . .but its just so tempting. . .

I'm a Pagan in the bible belt as well norwood. . .nice to know someone else that probably has to deal with the same things I do. Its not fun being called names by some of these people. . .and you are right, alot of them only have religion on Sundays. Not all of them, but alot of them.

I sometimes wonder if Pagans posted a sign that read: The Goddess loves you. I bet the people here would have a fit.

I live in the Bible Belt. I know it sounds just AWFUL, but there's this billboard not too far from my house that says "Jesus Christ is Lord". . .and I really want to get some spray paint and put "of the dance" underneath it. . .its so bad of me. . .and I really must stop thinking about it. . .but its just so tempting. . .

Like urban legends, this practice musythave spread right across the world. Driving to a beautiful coastal hamlet with the unlikely name of cofffin bay in south australia, I noticed that someone had written the traditional first part of this message on the back of a large highway sign. It wasn't long before someone completed the message exactly as noted here.

There are youtube videos and such ~_~

Goddess billboards here: http://hawkdancing.com/gdssigns.html

Im sure there are clovis, but being of the older generation, i'm not wise in the ways of "space book" and "my face."

Not only dont i possess a face or a space, when i searched i couldnt find a single person i knew, or who was related to me, who had one, (students of mine excepted)
Nonetheless, while it is hard for me to believe on faith alone, i think your explanation makes logical sense