Bible Belt Rules and Beliefs

[SC122]

Originally Posted by Asheville Native

There are three truths in life:

• Jewish people do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
• Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith.
• Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store.

There is a reason baptists are the butt of so many jokes in the bible belt primarily for the hypocritical ways.

LOL,too funny.
and sadly,so true.I think you just hit the nail on the head.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by grasshopper_60619

I want to know where did the ideas of rules against watching television, playing ball, and going to the movies originated in the Bible Belt , and are they still in practice today in the region?

That is the Independent Fundamental Baptist denomination. People like that are really the exception rather than the rule, even in the Bible Belt. Every town in the US usually has at least one Independent Fundamental Baptist church so you'll pretty much find a few people like that anywhere you live.

[Dragonfly14]

Originally Posted by grasshopper_60619

I want to know where did the ideas of rules against watching television, playing ball, and going to the movies originated in the Bible Belt , and are they still in practice today in the region?

We just left a IFB in Michigan, and they STILL believe that you shouldn't go to movies because no one knows what movie you are going to see so it is necessary to obstain for the appearance of evil.

Our pastor taught that basically there really isn't anything on television a Christian should watch, but he didn't dare tell people to throw out their t.v. sets.

Our IFB had an adult softball league and the Christian day school had basketball, but having the right spirit and dressing appropriately while playing was stressed!

And of course, no matter what -- all alcohol is evil still! Oh, yeah, and medical marijuana is bad, too, and no one needs to be on Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax, or any of that kind of stuff -- it's a heart or sin issue, not a mental health issue.

[Dragonfly14]

Originally Posted by SC122

Thomas,yes,there's plenty of supervised courting still going on in the teen world of fundies..most aren't allowed to casual date and just go out and have fun,they have to court,ie- look for a potential mate.

That is very true -- we always considered ourselves the "hippies" at our IFB. When I told folks at the church that our grandson had a girlfriend and was going out on chaparoned dates (he's 16), Oh MY WORD! You'd thought we let them go off and fornicate!

[LargeKingCat]

This is interesting. I know Alcohol and especially drinking on Sundays was Forbidden when I was a child being held in bondage to Christianity.
File:Alcohol control in the United States.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now yes, I did chew someone out for using wiki (the encyclopedia) for research facts, but this is different, it is ok when I do it ,after all I am a religiousite
JUST KIDDING
I needed a statistic and this map looked good.
The yellow indicates that the area higlighted is Semi-Dry as in alcohol can be consumed in a restaurnt or club only, the red is totally dry as in it cannot be sold period.
This does not include a situation I had years ago, I was working in Georgia, and I went grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon (Come to think of it, the store was not crowded) and when I got up to pay for my grocceries the guy said "OH OH You cannot buy beer here on Sundays It is against the law" Found out that was not a statewide restriction but set by each municipality.
So I guess they don't want people stopping out for a breakfast shot before going to church ? Well, turns out they don;t allow it in Most of Oklahoma either, and not only that, but they only allow a low percent beer to be sold.

I know growing up in Texas we had blue laws which restricted things that could be sold on Sunday. They religious institution was behond it, and in the 80s when we finally got it overturned they were the ones who cried the loudest. I remember seeing religious people hodning up signs saying VOTE NO and even getting junk mail flyers telling how bad the world would be if the blue laws were voted out. (It took us 10 years to get a vote going...I say US because I was invloved) Looked at the fine print and it was from the local united methodist bishops office.
Blue laws basically said food and gas were the only items that could be sold on consecutive saturdays and sundays, forcing most stores to close on Sunday. The idea was that if there was nothing else to do, maybe people would go to church instead.
I also noticed that religious programming would dominate the cable TV at the time, and cable TV was all of 5 stations so they bought up all the sunday Morning time, meaning if you don't go to church you won't find anything worth watching TV
There were a few other things I noticed at the times
Little league baseball games were forbidden to be held on Sundays (that was in the rulebook)
Birthday parties were never held on Sundays
When Halloween fell on a Sunday we had a chance to trick or treat on Saturday night instead. Went for the whole town. (this was in the 70s)
Same with July 4th, the firework show and party was held on Saturday night (no need to dare to shoot off fireworks on Sunday)
Yes, the town I lived in had the highest ratio or protestant churches to citizens in Texas. Also had a very high violent crime rate, gang activity (in the 70s) had unsafe drinking water, subpar medical care and a high school drop out rate of 45 %

Guess the churches were telling people that they "don't need no education, afterall, Jesus will be here next Tuesday to take us all away and fix ever'thing so don't be worryin about gettin no job or makin no money yee-haw and amen"