Is it true what I've heard (St. Louis, Springfield: fit in, how much, school) - Springfield - Branson area - Missouri (MO) - City-Data Forum

dober1 · 12-13-2013, 06:02 PM

I've heard that in some of the smaller towns in the Ozarks, the locals will shun you if you do not attend a specific church. I don't know if this is fact or fiction. I grew up in Iowa and Nebraska and no one really cared what religion you claimed. I am Catholic and have thought about moving to southern Missouri. I would not do well in an area where religion played such a big part in the social scene.
I forgot to add I personally do not care what religion one claims and expect the same from others.

jkiss · 12-13-2013, 07:48 PM

I also came from Nebraska and I can tell you it is different here than Nebraska. This is my opinion only and the way things are for me. Everyone is different so they may see things I don't. Yes religion plays a big part in many peoples lives here. Mostly Baptist from my perspective. Although you will find all faiths here. I am Lutheran and we attend a Lutheran church. The place where I work they circle around every morning and pray. We do not have to join in if we don't want to. I wouldn't say we get shunned. I have a high tolerance to people preaching and just blow things off most of the time. I have found the majority of people to be very friendly and love going to the stores here and being greeted and told to have a nice day, Merry Christmas or whatever.

The jobs are few and far between and the pay here is not as good as it is in Nebraska. The cost of living is a little lower but not a huge difference. I think most people can fit in if they make the effort to find people they like and to not be overly judgmental. Good luck in your decision. Go Huskers....

christina0001 · 12-14-2013, 08:19 AM

I think that's a bit of an overgeneralization, but I've been in a town or two around here that kind of had that vibe. There's definitely certain churches where members seem to mainly keep to themselves. I would recommend to anyone looking to relocate, to visit the area first and ensure they are comfortable with what is there.

dober1 · 12-14-2013, 01:19 PM

Oh I will without a doubt check an area thoroughly before relocating. I am retired so a job is not an issue.

Bluff_Dweller · 12-20-2013, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dober1

Oh I will without a doubt check an area thoroughly before relocating. I am retired so a job is not an issue.

There is all kinds of people everywhere. I have lived in Southwest Missouri within 6 miles all my 78 years with the exception of the first two weeks and some of the natives have never accepted me as one of them.

Now that this lower cost of living area has become a retirement mecca, there are more foreigners than natives. JMO

luzianne · 12-20-2013, 06:29 PM

There are a lot of people who do go to church in small towns in Missouri, especially south of Springfield. And there are a lot of churches, different denominations. But no, no one is going to shun you if you don't go to church or go to a different one than they do.

dober1 · 12-20-2013, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luzianne

There are a lot of people who do go to church in small towns in Missouri, especially south of Springfield. And there are a lot of churches, different denominations. But no, no one is going to shun you if you don't go to church or go to a different one than they do.

Are you a local resident? If so thank you for the information.

Sojj · 12-22-2013, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luzianne

There are a lot of people who do go to church in small towns in Missouri, especially south of Springfield. And there are a lot of churches, different denominations. But no, no one is going to shun you if you don't go to church or go to a different one than they do.

Yes, they will. My son - who now has a doctorate and is teaching at a University - was dating a girl in the very very small town where he grew up. When his guitar teacher found out about it, he and his wife went to her pastor because they were "concerned" because they had recently found out that we are not xtian. Upshot - the girl stopped dating him because he was not xtian and she had been counseled by her pastor that they needed to be "yoked in harness" or some such. The last I heard she was dating a drug dealer. She never went to college as she had been planning when she was dating my son.

So dating the drug dealer is OK because he was a member of her church. It was OK that she was going out drinking and drugging with other members of her church, something she never did nor ever would have done had she not dropped my son. So much for being "concerned" about her well-being.

There were people in town who wouldn't talk to me because I didn't attend any church. I have friends who hide the fact that they are Buddhist because they are afraid for their safety and well-being. I saw a woman at a craft festival pull her daughter away from a plant that was decorated with a small laughing Buddha in it because "that's devil-worship" - and I've heard that from more than one person. When I tried to start a Buddhist group at the local college when I was a student there, the office kept "losing" my paperwork - including the stuff that had been submitted ELECTRONICALLY by the faculty advisor for the group. That wasn't even in a SMALL town, that was in a town of over 200,000 people.

One of my friend's wife was talking to a co-worker about her husband, who is Buddhist. She was trying to explain about Buddhism because this other woman thought Buddhism was (*sigh*) a form of devil-worship. At last the woman sighed and said, "Well, at least he isn't Catholic." The wife IS Catholic. She chose not to disclose this to the woman in question. Again - in a fairly good sized city, not even a small town.

However, on the plus side - very few people I've ever met have tried to beat my religion out of me. Most people don't make an issue of it if you don't make an issue of it. However, should you ever turn down, say, an invitation to a revival meeting, that will be all over the county (and sometimes bordering counties as well) in nothing flat. That's how it was finally revealed that my son was not Xtian.

The question is, do you go to a church, any church, of the xtian denomination (except the Catholic Church, but even that is better than nothing). If you do, you probably won't be bothered much. If you don't, and if you don't want to make an issue of it, and you don't live somewhere like KC or St. Louis or Columbia where folks are too busy to poke about into the state of the preservation of your soul, pick something like a Unitarian church and drop by that occasionally. If you show up once every 3 or 4 months even it'll keep you out of the worst of the hot water.

Or, if you don't give a darn about what a certain segment of the population thinks and you don't have school-age children who will be affected by who won't date them, speak to them in school, or hang out with them, you'll probably still be fine in most places. There are very very few people I have ever run across in southern MO who will grill you about your personal life. There's a good chance that no one will ever find out - even if you turn down an invitation to a revival meeting, if you are quicker thinking on your feet than I was, LOL!

northbound74 · 12-22-2013, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dober1

I've heard that in some of the smaller towns in the Ozarks, the locals will shun you if you do not attend a specific church. I don't know if this is fact or fiction. I grew up in Iowa and Nebraska and no one really cared what religion you claimed. I am Catholic and have thought about moving to southern Missouri. I would not do well in an area where religion played such a big part in the social scene.
I forgot to add I personally do not care what religion one claims and expect the same from others.

Well, don't expect the local culture to change for you, BUT, it's not the issue people try to make it out to be. Mostly, it depends on the crowd you hang out with. While there are prevailing attitudes to some extent, but there are all different kinds of people in southern MO, and finding like-minded people isn't at all impossible.
Springfield, Branson, or the lake areas filled with people from elsewhere are probably your best bet.

20yrsinBranson · 12-22-2013, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dober1

I've heard that in some of the smaller towns in the Ozarks, the locals will shun you if you do not attend a specific church. I don't know if this is fact or fiction. I grew up in Iowa and Nebraska and no one really cared what religion you claimed. I am Catholic and have thought about moving to southern Missouri. I would not do well in an area where religion played such a big part in the social scene.
I forgot to add I personally do not care what religion one claims and expect the same from others.

A lot of it depends on which town you choose and how much you care what other people think about it. There seem to be Catholics everywhere around the Branson area, but if you get out into the really rural areas not so much. Most of the Catholics tend to socialize with other Catholics and being part of a church is a big deal around here.

Since I am not big into community myself, it is hard to comment on how that impacts social relationships.

20yrsinBranson