red state sex vs. blue state sex
soulsinging
Posts: 13,202
interesting article here about the 'do as i say, not as i do' mentality of american evangelicals:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008 ... table=true
it's pretty long, but some interesting points:
- evangelicals start having sex younger than any denomination except black protestants
- even the ones that take virgin pledges fare no better than the population at large
- they have babies younger and marry younger
- despite their obsession with the sanctity of marriage, they divorce as much, if not more than, godless liberals
- said liberals talk little about defining marriage, yet have happier marriages, more stable and successful kids, and less divorce
gee, imagine that! now all you values voters can go fuck yourselves. WE are not the problem. YOU are the problem.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008 ... table=true
it's pretty long, but some interesting points:
- evangelicals start having sex younger than any denomination except black protestants
- even the ones that take virgin pledges fare no better than the population at large
- they have babies younger and marry younger
- despite their obsession with the sanctity of marriage, they divorce as much, if not more than, godless liberals
- said liberals talk little about defining marriage, yet have happier marriages, more stable and successful kids, and less divorce
gee, imagine that! now all you values voters can go fuck yourselves. WE are not the problem. YOU are the problem.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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i'd be VERY curious to know their abortion rates as well, not that i want to turn this into THAT debate.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
it's in there. much higher in the blue states. but thanks a lot for making sure we spend the next 10 pages talking about dead babies instead of hot teen sex
You sound like you've just had Christmas dinner with your wife's side of the family who badgered you all night like about how it's people like you who are causing the social downturn in American society.
I agree with your argument, however, as I said, the manner in which you delivered it was very personal and not very scholarly. I'll give you a hand there.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about Evangelical values vs. reality should have a look at an essay entitled Inventing Family Values by Matthew D. Lassiter. While it focuses more on the counterculture movement of the 1970's, it gives much insight into the mentality of the Evangelical Christian and how the Evangelical Christian committed many of the same "social crimes" they were convicting the counterculture members of.
Hope this helps!
i read that, but that still doesn't tell me the rate of abortion for the red states, just that they are lower than the blue. however, it was a VERY interesting read...and especially at the end, who knew that liberals are actually pro-family eh?
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
i dont consider this a place for scholarly debate. it was meant to be personal.
had no family problems, hehe. i've just re-entered the arena after a long absence from the theology wars. though come to think, the weekend before i broke up with my gf we did go to church with her family for the first time ever... coincidence?
A direct quote from Jerry Falwell of NBC's Meet the Press concerning the growing population of Evangelical Christians as a response to the counterculture movement, "We're not trying to jam our moral philosophy down the throats of others. We're simply trying to keep others from jamming their amoral philosophies down our throats." Thanks Jerry, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
While many women were begging for government help in the form of Universal Child Care so they could leave the home and go to work, women like Phyllis Schlafly were trying to convince America how a child being reared by anyone other than the mother could lead to Homosexuality and Feminism. Anything other than a tight knit nuclear family with a stay at home mother and a breadwinning father would lead to a social fall out in American society.
Yet somehow, today, we're all still here. Women are in the workplace, there is more gender, race, and sexual equality, and America is still socially doing just fine.
I'm sure that for every person who believes in the Evangelical thesis for a better America, there are ten Americans who completely disagree with it. There will always be those who cling to straws and wish for a more traditional past, and there will always be those who look to the future as an opportunity to leave the celebrated injustices of the past and create a better tomorrow.
Tally me in for the latter.
I really hate doing this, because I so agree with you. However, the basis, the absolute most fundamental element of any religion is to promote tolerance and understanding. When religion functions in this manner, I have to believe it is a good thing. The problem being every religion seems to have it's own agenda and instead of preaching acceptance and tolerance of others, preaches the superiority of itself and teaches hatred of others. Even if this is not verbatim what the "preacher" says, too many people who attend church, mass, temple, etc., hear their own message.
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ." Ghandi
+1
Nice post. I'd just like to add that there seems to be a lot of hatred from both groups you describe in the last paragraph. The "I'm okay, you're not okay" syndrome which = aggressive weakness.
if every religion has its own agenda and preaches its own superiority, how can you say the fundamental element of religion is tolerance? many religions preach the opposite of that and have throughout history, openly. seems to me that you're talking about what you think religion should be like, more so than what it actually is or means.
that's why we need these statistics. it's time we shame our less evolved fellows into joining the modern world
I've done a lot of research on American fundamentalism as well, though more from the legal, sociological, and political science end of things than pure history. You're spot on, this movement did not really exist until more recently. hell, early 20th century evangelicals were some of the strongest supporters of women's suffrage and the like. somewhere around the 70s though, this whole conservative values movement was born and has taken root. the hippies were rightly decimated for the impracticality of their views, but the values reactionaries have grown like weeds. it's time to pull them like they did the hippies.
I think you're right. I was raised Catholic and even though I have gotten away from it, formulated my own values and morals, I still think about it sometimes. I know there are good people who practice religion, I've met them. I think that religion should be more about tolerance and acceptance. I don't want to talk myself into a corner after what I already had said about Evangelicals but I can say this: to this day there are few men I respect more than how I respect Fred Rogers. Everyday, in the same mild-mannered voice, he said, "Everyone is special for who they are." When I run into a moral or ethical conundrum, that's usually the very first thing I think of when trying to resolve it.
:thumbup:
i dont break any 'stupid religious laws' cause i dont live under any to break. so no we all dont.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
so by we all do you didnt actually mean we all. the we was specific. gotcha.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Are you feeling repressed by Southern Evangelicals lately? Thats a lot of hate you got going on there.
Honestly, who gives a shit. There is more important stuff to worry about.
a-fucking-men.