Why do people think KC is in the "Bible Belt"? (Kansas City: credit, homes)
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Don't know what to tell you...as stated earlier, these are predominantly young adults...a very specific subset of the population. I don't know your age, but it's possible that the difference may be tied up in that. I haven't noticed it being tied to any one part of the metro, although the ones with kids typically don't live in the core...but beyond that, they're just as likely to be from Liberty as from Olathe, Blue Springs as OP.
I too am a young adult (almost 26); I have friends my age that live in Brookside, Liberty, Overland Park, Parkville, and Gladstone. A few are still in college, but many of them are already married (some even have babies), but they don't particularly strike me as being religious-right or even "culturally rural". They never really discuss religion much at all; in fact many of them are socially liberal, just not vocally liberal like young people on the coasts.
I have only ONE friend who comes from a real hardcore religious-right family (he himself is not). He's actually from Elwood, KS...he and his family lived in KC for a few years before moving back.
Well, this is quite interesting as you are referring to a scholastic secular work environment. This is another piece of evidence that explains the phenomenon that others have noticed regarding the elevated percentage of the population that gets married right after college in KC.
I've never understood why people point this "phenomenon" out, or why it seems the person doing so often does so with a negative tone.
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Originally Posted by MOKAN
I've never understood why people point this "phenomenon" out, or why it seems the person doing so often does so with a negative tone.
I wasn't implying it as "negative," but the prevailing social culture of KC is different than other areas I've lived in. This has been discussed ad nausem in other threads here.
I too am a young adult (almost 26); I have friends my age that live in Brookside, Liberty, Overland Park, Parkville, and Gladstone. A few are still in college, but many of them are already married (some even have babies), but they don't particularly strike me as being religious-right or even "culturally rural". They never really discuss religion much at all; in fact many of them are socially liberal, just not vocally liberal like young people on the coasts.
I have only ONE friend who comes from a real hardcore religious-right family (he himself is not). He's actually from Elwood, KS...he and his family lived in KC for a few years before moving back.
It's really funny, because I spent the first 18 years of my life on a farm in the rural Midwest, with the closest community being a village of 350 people, went to college in a small town in the upper Midwest, and have only lived in urban environments for seven of my 35 years...but I'm neither "religious right," nor probably what you would consider to be "culturally rural," (though I can't say for sure, not knowing what all that would entail - I am socially and vocally liberal, vote democrat, am unmarried and cohabiting with my SO for the past 5 years, no kids, college educated, etc.). I guarantee that my much more evangelically-minded colleagues are MUCH more urban/suburban in upbringing than I am.
I am religious, and, if I am concerned for someone, will pray for them. I do not, however, unlike a large number of my coworkers, TELL people that I will pray for them. My faith is personal...I don't really do the public affirmation thing...but a lot of the kids I work with sure do.
Again, I don't know what your personal definition of "really hardcore" is...I just know that I work with a lot of young adults who are more open and vocal about their faith and spiritual lives than those I've worked with elsewhere.
I wasn't implying it as "negative," but the prevailing social culture of KC is different than other areas I've lived in. This has been discussed ad nausem in other threads here.
I didn't mean to imply that, but it's often spoken of with a negative tone. The most classless people even have nasty labels to go along with their anti-marrying young stance. I don't recall it being debated here and even searched the forums looking for a thread.
It's really funny, because I spent the first 18 years of my life on a farm in the rural Midwest, with the closest community being a village of 350 people, went to college in a small town in the upper Midwest, and have only lived in urban environments for seven of my 35 years...but I'm neither "religious right," nor probably what you would consider to be "culturally rural," (though I can't say for sure, not knowing what all that would entail - I am socially and vocally liberal, vote democrat, am unmarried and cohabiting with my SO for the past 5 years, no kids, college educated, etc.). I guarantee that my much more evangelically-minded colleagues are MUCH more urban/suburban in upbringing than I am.
I am religious, and, if I am concerned for someone, will pray for them. I do not, however, unlike a large number of my coworkers, TELL people that I will pray for them. My faith is personal...I don't really do the public affirmation thing...but a lot of the kids I work with sure do.
Again, I don't know what your personal definition of "really hardcore" is...I just know that I work with a lot of young adults who are more open and vocal about their faith and spiritual lives than those I've worked with elsewhere.
The suburban household that I grew up in was not 100% church-going; we went to church (Episcopalian) but not consistently every Sunday. My upbringing has been pretty secular for the most part...and I guess the same could be said for my friends/acquaintances.
When I said "real hardcore", I meant it. The friend I'm referring to from Elwood, KS; his parents were born-again fundamentalist Christians/Republicans and weren't shy about it. One of them used to own an online-based lingerie business that was linked to his personal homepage, and on the homepage was a section that talked about "dying without Jesus" (it was pretty graphic). His parents had bumper stickers on their car from the 700 Club and with messages that said "Keep marriage between Man and Woman"; they were also big fans of right-wing talk radio (just by looking at their bumper stickers).
They were nice and caring people, but they were pretty hardcore about their religion (at least they were to me) and politics. I'm a libertarian-leaning independent and I believe religion and politics are a bad mix.
Having said that, I do have a spiritual side and I can pray when I feel it's necessary. I just don't take the Bible in a word-for-word literal context...and as far as I know, neither do my KC-born friends and family.
Last edited by MidWestCityNative; 05-26-2012 at 02:03 AM..
The suburban household that I grew up in was not 100% church-going; we went to church (Episcopalian) but not consistently every Sunday. My upbringing has been pretty secular for the most part...and I guess the same could be said for my friends/acquaintances.
When I said "really hardcore", I meant it. The friend I'm referring to from Elwood, KS; his parents were born-again fundamentalist Christians and weren't shy about it. One of them used to own an online-based lingerie business that was linked to his personal homepage, and on the homepage was a section that talked about "dying without Jesus" (it was pretty graphic). His parents had bumper stickers on their car from the 700 Club and with messages that said "Keep marriage between Man and Woman".
They were nice and caring people, but they were pretty hardcore about their religion. At least they were to me, because I don't take the Bible word-for-word literally.
If you think that's hardcore, you should visit the tiny Baptist church out in a field in central Missouri I had the pleasure of experiencing. The pastor does this extremely intense preaching in which he sweated profusely and turned red and when he kneeled behind the podium to pray and cry it sounded like coyotes were surrounding the church and howling. Seriously. Interesting mix of folks too. It's like an old family (not mine) church on old family acreage and pulls folks from all over the region from KC to Springfield. White-collar, blue-collar, rural, urban, even one guy actually has a Mexican wife and mixed kids. I don't think those people were really racist or anything like that, but they were definitely hardcore.
What you described doesn't sound that extreme. For some reason around these parts I've found people like you described to typically be more of the working-class variety. I'm not sure if that's an actual correlation or just my experience. Anyway, but keeping marriage between a man and a woman is something even a whole lot of Democrats are for - I'm not sure it's all that hardcore. Didn't Claire McCaskill just make the news along with a bunch of bother prominent Democrats in their stance against Obama's coming out in favor of gay marriage? I kind of think the state should stop "marrying" people all together and provide "civil unions" and leave it up to the individual churches as to who they will marry. Then you'd have a win-win. Courthouse marriages without a church ceremony wouldn't be as highly regarded as an actual marriage at a church. AND, the gay marriage debate would be over, but they'd get to have the legal benefits and find a church to marry them.
If you think that's hardcore, you should visit the tiny Baptist church out in a field in central Missouri I had the pleasure of experiencing. The pastor does this extremely intense preaching in which he sweated profusely and turned red and when he kneeled behind the podium to pray and cry it sounded like coyotes were surrounding the church and howling. Seriously. Interesting mix of folks too. It's like an old family (not mine) church on old family acreage and pulls folks from all over the region from KC to Springfield. White-collar, blue-collar, rural, urban, even one guy actually has a Mexican wife and mixed kids. I don't think those people were really racist or anything like that, but they were definitely hardcore.
What you described doesn't sound that extreme. For some reason around these parts I've found people like you described to typically be more of the working-class variety. I'm not sure if that's an actual correlation or just my experience. Anyway, but keeping marriage between a man and a woman is something even a whole lot of Democrats are for - I'm not sure it's all that hardcore. Didn't Claire McCaskill just make the news along with a bunch of bother prominent Democrats in their stance against Obama's coming out in favor of gay marriage? I kind of think the state should stop "marrying" people all together and provide "civil unions" and leave it up to the individual churches as to who they will marry. Then you'd have a win-win. Courthouse marriages without a church ceremony wouldn't be as highly regarded as an actual marriage at a church. AND, the gay marriage debate would be over, but they'd get to have the legal benefits and find a church to marry them.
I was still editing/finishing my post when you replied...lol
I've never seen churches like you described, it almost sounds like the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church (minus the public protests).
All politicians including Democrats will take sides on any issue if their state's voting constituency leans a certain way; it doesn't matter if that's what they personally believe or not. While St. Louis and KC are more gay-friendly, the rest of Missouri is typically not.
I was still editing/finishing my post when you replied...lol
I've never seen churches like you described, it almost sounds like the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church (minus the public protests).
All politicians including Democrats will take sides on any issue if their state's voting constituency leans a certain way; it doesn't matter if that's what they personally believe or not. While St. Louis and KC are more gay-friendly, the rest of Missouri is typically not.
It's hard to tell what Westboro is like as a church.
One thing I find interesting about Westboro Baptist Church though is that it's named after the Westboro neighborhood, which is Topeka's Brookside-equivalent. Literally. It's a beautiful 1920's neighborhood with the same architecture and design as Brookside. I'm sure the neighborhood is upper-middle/upper class, as well, like Brookside. I can only imagine of what people think of the area because of the church. But I'm thinking it'd be just like if they set up shop in Brookside - just because a lunatic church is located there doesn't mean the neighborhood is like them. Well-regarded Washburn University and historic Gage Park are also in the same general area. Imagine if Westboro set up shop in Brookside!
I suppose I see what you mean about politicians going with the constituency, especially if the gay thing is enough for Missouri to lose a Democratic senator.
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