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In this context smart enough not to buy into the lies...
Wish I could have moved there when I had the chance. I'd fit right in!
Exactly. Most of us up here are too smart to believe in that religion crap. If you don't either, you would fit in in that regard.
It's actually a little weird when someone says they do go to church!
The Second Great Awakening occurred in the U.S. between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Vermont was not untouched by it. I made the argument in my undergraduate honors thesis that it was caused by economic difficulties. When things aren't going well, people turn to religion for help.
As someone had already mentioned Joseph Smith was from Vermont. But also William Miller, who wasn't born in Vermont but lived in Poultney and died just over the border in NY. William Miller claimed that the world was going to end around 1844. He didn't name a specific date, but one of his followers did. On that date, his followers gave away all their possessions, donned white robes and climbed trees and roofs (so the ascend into Heaven would be shorter). The Millerites went on to form the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Also from Vermont was John Humphrey Noyes who created the Perfectionist community in Putney. This was a bit unorthodox and they practiced what they refereed to as "complex marriage"-which stated that all men were married to all women. Of course this raised holy hell in Puritan New England and they were kicked out of Vermont. They settled in Oneida, NY and became known as the Oneida Community-known for it silverware. Yup, the same Oneida silverware company. As for Noyes, he was kicked out of NY, too and died in exile in Canada.
While all three of these guys had ties to Vermont, all three moved out of Vermont (even though Miller just went over the border). But as they left, so did their followers. Actually, a lot of people moved out of the state. With the west opening up, a lot of Vermonters left.
After the Civil War, you had other groups coming in-the Italians (to work in the granite quarries), the Welsh (to work in the slate quarries), the Irish (to work in the marble quarries). So, comes the Catholics and other non-Puritan religions. I think because there are so many different religions represented, not one dominates-unlike in other parts of the country where one or two religions dominate. Today, in my little town of less than 3000 people, we have 5 different churches.
As for people who have never been asked what church they go to, I was asked by the Baptist minister's wife and answered, "I don't go to church. I'm a Pagan." The response was "We can change that." EXCUSE YOU!!!! She later sat down with me and asked me about my religion. And no, she decided not to try to convert me.
Oh, and there will be a history quiz next period.
Cat
I think I'd flunk but I've got the general idea!
William MILLER? As a genealogist, Oh No! I PRAY that he is not an ancestor of my Vermont Millers. They founded Richford, which is Seventh Day Adventist.
I love this thread. It explains how New Englanders are, especially Vermonters. I don't think anyone has ever asked my what my religion was since I was in elementary school. Who cares. (But now I have to run and check my family tree, kinda hoping William Miller isn't related to me, lol.)
But actually, studies have shown that Southerners join civic activities and do volunteer work at a lesser rate than northerners, especially those in the midwest prairie farming and upper Great Lakes regions settled by Nordic peoples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone
Not at all shocked.
I currently live in NE Ohio - The Connecticut Western Reserve, settled by New Englanders in the 1700s. There is a definite New England vibe here - in our architecture, high regard for education, number of competitive colleges, history of abolitionists and participation in the Underground Rail Road, and volunteerism.
I find that the Northern Midwest shares quite a bit with New England.
In reference to Christianity, simply put...the hippie invasion. Vermont was a conservative state until hippies in the 1960s. This totally turned Vermont into a more liberal, free thinking, peace, love, and granola state As for least religious, this is debatable...many people identify with their spirit animals and worship treesD Lots of Buddhists, pagans (wicca), and other new age beliefs here.
[quote=greenbeanie;49110278]In reference to Christianity, simply put...the hippie invasion. Vermont was a conservative state until hippies in the 1960s. This totally turned Vermont into a more liberal, free thinking, peace, love, and granola state As for least religious, this is debatable...many people identify with their spirit animals and worship treesD Lots of Buddhists, pagans (wicca), and other new age beliefs here.[/quote
I visit Vermont frequently. There are Christian churches in Vermont. There are many Congregationalist Churches - United Church of Christ, Episcopal, as well as other denominations, such as American Baptist, (the more progressive and mainstream strain) and others. Religion in Vermont, as with many of the New England States, is rational, less emotional and tends to be rooted in reason and education. People also do not discuss religion publicly, as they do in the South.
My son graduated from college in Vermont on a Sunday. On the way to commencement exercises, we noticed that all of the church parking lots were packed. I am sure, from the way that you are speaking, that you might have thought some of the people we saw walking into the churches were "hippies". Actually, "hippie" is an archaic term. Progressive, intellectual, left leaning, bohemian type people can also be Christian, you know. It's entirely possible.
What Vermont does not have many of are Fundamentalist churches. However, there are some. I happen to know personally of one. There is a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, just outside of Brattleboro. It too, had a packed parking lot on Sunday. http://greenmountainchapel.org/Home_Page.html This is an example of an Evangelical church in Vermont. I am sure there are others.
While not Christian, there is a Jewish temple in Bennington.
I don't buy the "hippie equals atheist or alternative non Judaeo-Christian" line of thought, because I am a progressive and a church member.
Most of my information is observational and is centered around college towns in Vermont.
In reference to Christianity, simply put...the hippie invasion. Vermont was a conservative state until hippies in the 1960s. This totally turned Vermont into a more liberal, free thinking, peace, love, and granola state As for least religious, this is debatable...many people identify with their spirit animals and worship treesD Lots of Buddhists, pagans (wicca), and other new age beliefs here.
The basic bolded part of the comment, stripped of the hyperbole, is somewhat true. Buddhism might be "New Age" to Hindus, but it predates Christianity, as do Wiccan and Pagan, although those have enough changes from the classic forms to be considered offshoots or "new." Pejoratives and mockery that exclude Christianity and focuses elsewhere often indicates an individual with no real knowledge of searches for spirituality, or a Christian attempting to defend the faith through ignorance. I'd advise against it.
Vermont has always been free thinking, even in the conservative sector. The decision to focus on tourism by the 1930s legislature was decidedly free thinking by a staunch conservative group. The effects of that have been large in attracting the rich, free-thinking, and intelligentsia, from Kipling to Solzhenitsyn, to an early group of "hippies" at Lake Bomoseen.
Where Vermonters have differed from citizens of other states is in a distaste for entrenched power that has become mean or abusive, and a willingness to take a chance on something new. That includes local and state government, via town meetings and direct involvement, hierarchical church structure through embracing or accepting without violence Unitarian and Universalist views LONG before the 1960s (note the most prominent church in the state at the head of Church Street in Burlington).
Part of the ability to change comes from the small population, which puts a larger percentage of people in direct contact with government and church leaders. Part of the ability to change comes from it being an insignificant enough financial prize that those in search of power and raising an oligarchy seek greener pastures. Having a church of a couple hundred attendees on Christmas is a lot less enticing than a mega-church in Alabama with over a thousand in weekly attendance, millions invested in infrastructure, and huge political clout.
The invasion of hippies was not all that large. Goddard College was somewhat of an attractor, and the Northeast Kingdom quickly disabused many of fantasies of the ease of rural life. The meaningful part of that era was from about 1967 to 1975. The effects are also over-rated, as many of the kids who were exploring in that era were on a type of rumshpringa, and reverted quickly.
As another example of the minimal effect of hippie invasion, "The Farm" is a few miles north of me. If you have any awareness of hippie movement, you know it was considered a crown jewel of the hippie ideals. Today, there are about 200 people still there, and to say the area is conservative is an understatement.
I agree that certain churches are packed on Sundays but it is very uncommon to see a lot of young attendees like you may see in other states particularly in the non-denominational or evangelical churches. In my opinion it is more about community per se. Vermont is very big on community, helping out your neighbor, and gatherings. It would not surprise me in the least if many people attend church for this reason alone...to see and spend time with their neighbors. It can be very close knit. Living here for 5 years and interacting with people who have lived here their whole lives, most people are non-religious. There are many empty churches that remain for historical reasons as well as churches that have been converted into other things (pharmacies, concert halls,....). Most of the younger generation, if religious at all, are into more of a "new age" movement. It can be very politically correct and many places stay away from showing any religious observance in the workplace. I have seen people actually get ticked off if you wish them a "Merry Christmas" in shops or make any reference at all to being Christian.
I was not around in the 1960s but I think it is fair to say that "hippies" who would now be considered more "progressive thinkers" leaned more on the liberal then conservative side. There were 3 major communes in the Brattleboro Vermont area. I'm not saying that this was the only reason people started moving away from church but i'm sure it contributed to it at least to some degree. Even people who do attend church here tend to be more liberal in their thinking then churches in other states.
Family dynamics also plays a large part in religiosity. George Lakoff (Don't Think of an Elephant) has studied the patriarchal vs. nurturing family models and points out that in agonic (struggle-based) families, where usually the male is the controller, children grow up living in fear of authority, become rigid thinkers (even though they might excel in their career field) and are inclined to believe in an all-powerful deity whose approval is prudent to seek. These children grow up to go to churches which provide them comfort.
In nurturing families, the dominant parent provides consistent messages to children that they matter, that they are good, that they have potentials which when developed will do good things for themselves and others. This parent can be either male, female or both. These children grow up with the ability to care for others as well as themselves, to deal constructively with ambiguities and differences and to make things better in this world rather than worry about damnation in the next. A lot of them become Unitarians, in my opinion.
But this might explain in large part why Vermonters are not known for being churchgoers.
I went looking for answers on this and found surprisingly little research. One hypothesis I came across suggested that states with higher African-American populations are more religious on average, as black Americans tend to be religious. While I'm sure there's some truth to that, I don't think anyone would dispute that the typical white Vermonter is less religious than the typical white Mississippian.
So here's an original hypothesis from me: The pervasive live-and-let-live social attitudes in New England lead to less social pressure to practice religion. Also, evangelical movements never caught on in New England, and those are the religious movements that have thrived in recent times while the mainline Protestantism that remained dominant in New England has stagnated.
I think this describes the reasons well. Also, degree of religiosity is correlated to ethnicity and level of education. Southern states have many more blacks and Vermont is one of the whitest in the country.
Level of education in New England is generally higher which is inversely correlated....
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As a genealogist, Oh No! I PRAY that he is not an ancestor of my Vermont Millers. They founded Richford, which is Seventh Day Adventist.
