Is rural America really like this? (farming, lake, village, chickens)
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I've never lived in rural areas so I have no idea if his depiction is correct.
comments?
I didn't even waste the time to read it, but anything labeled "The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America" screams to me as inaccurate as you can get.
Let's throw as many generalized labels in the Title and see what response we get.
It may be unfair that the author tried to paint all rural people as Christian fundamentalists. He/she is painting with too broad a brush.
But as someone who was raised in Christian fundamentalism, I can say that he/she understands the mentality of fundamentalism *perfectly*. It's a movement which is completely impervious to facts and reason, and thus it shares some disturbing similarities with radical Islam. It's a movement which is hazardous to both individuals and society.
apples to oranges
Which fundamentalist Christian groups advocate killing non-believers ?
I've never lived in rural areas so I have no idea if his depiction is correct.
comments?
It's probably true of segments of rural America.
But I grew up in easily as rural of America as the author, lived there for the first thirty years of my life, minus two years of urban living and working post-college. I'm no stranger to rural attitudes and mindsets. The point this article, as with many running right now, fails to acknowledge, is that there is no one rural attitude or mindset.
I grew up extremely rurally. I'm not an evangelical. Nobody in my family is. There is a somewhat local Pentecostal church, but it's largely regarded as full of odd "holy-roller" types in long denim skirts and modest blouses. As in most of America, most churches are mainline, and have rapidly dwindling congregations. Most of the rural folks I grew up with and still associate with, my family included, are church-affiliated in name only, if that, and might show up to whatever Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Catholic church they are nominally affiliated with on Christmas and Easter. They consider themselves religious, if pressed, but aren't rigid about attending or being regularly involved (I myself am a regular church attender, and this is generally true of most mainline congregations). There are swaths of rural America that are heavily charismatic and evangelically religious...where I grew up is not.
My family isn't conservative. Many of our neighbors were, and are. Many are not. People are more fiscally conservative where I am from than socially conservative. There are a couple of hair salons in town, and one is run by a woman named Jamie, who, when I was in high school, was my classmate, and was then a guy named Jimmy. Articles like this would have one believe that in no way could a transgender person even consider staying in a small, rural, politically conservative town, let alone run a business. This has not proven to be an issue. Is it common that someone in Jamie's position would choose to stay in town? Not so much, probably. But neither is she unsuccessful where she is.
I got my bachelor's degree in a small town in a rural area, as well, a different one than I was raised in. By virtue of being home to a liberal arts college, it was less of a conservative, anti-education place than this article otherwise depicts. Home to an extremely highly regarded, highly selective institution of higher learning since the late 1800s, it's never been a place with an anti-intellectual bent. Not all of rural America is.
In short, this article reflects the author's specific experience growing up in an evangelical atmosphere in rural America. It's a valid experience, but it's not an quintessential one. There are many of us who spent, and spend, much of our lives rurally whose experience doesn't reflect this at all. What I read was very overgeneralized. It was, "This is what I experienced, so this is the one, single, way things are."
The last part really made me basically he makes generalized statements about rural America like us rural Americans supposedly do.But this part really made me mad
If you urban people did not have us dirty horrible farm people working 90 hours a week, and putting all our money into planting crops or depending on the commodities to be good so you know we don't starve to death. This author wouldn't have homegrown food. But you know scr** us right.
We should work 90 hours a week, and never see our families and sell our crops or meat, or dairy for free to feed your urban families because in your eyes you are in fact morally and socially superior to us and we are just dirty farmers.
I mean, does this author even understand what the farm bill is. Does the author understand the reason we are paid to "Not plant" In certain area's that we own is to protect wildlife biodiversity.
No Rural America is not a horrible waste land that the left would like you to believe, but we are hurting right now and not all rural Americans are the same like not all Gays, or Blacks, or Mexcians are the same.
Speaking of generalizations, not all rural Americans are involved in agriculture. Another big overgeneralization is that "rural people are farmers."
It may be unfair that the author tried to paint all rural people as Christian fundamentalists.
But as someone who was raised in Christian fundamentalism, I can say that he/she understands the mentality of fundamentalism *perfectly*.
One would hope, given that he was raised in that atmosphere. I'd hope he could speak to the experience accurately. But fundamental Christianity isn't synonymous with living in rural America.
Where I am from, FAR more people are worshipping in the church of the NFL on any given Sunday than they are in any church, be it evangelical or mainline. And, most Evangelical megachurches are in heavily populated urban/suburban areas, not rural areas. It's not just a rural thing.
I've never lived in rural areas so I have no idea if his depiction is correct.
comments?
I grew up in the South with a pretty fundamentalist Mother and a Father that I would say was thinking and challenging the traditional Southerners ideals. I consider that article to be highly biased and a bitter rebuke that has some truth in it but a lot of untruths and exaggerations....could have been written by my brother who grew up in a fundamentalist environment but has rejected all religion and continues to live in the rural south with a similar low opinion of religious people and the culture and he hates Republicans with a passion.
What has happened is Globalization of the world economy that has benefitted the cities generally and harmed the rural areas. Many rural Southerners, wife & I for example, left to find jobs in areas such as Seattle (us) where our technical skills paid better. We carry many of our Southern values. The writer's depiction of a white Christian God was not accurate for me....because when Jesus commands us to lover our neighbor, he didn't distinguish between races.
In conclusion, some of what the article states has some truth but it's a bitter one sided view that isn't accurate for most.
Speaking of generalizations, not all rural Americans are involved in agriculture. Another big overgeneralization is that "rural people are farmers."
I agree, I am sorry. I hope I didn't insinuate that. I just was stating that, that particular part of the article annoyed me very much and did not mean to generalize anyone. I apologize.
As someone that grew up in rural western American had have lived in rural America for the past few years, I can say in the areas I lived in that what he portrays as rural America is completely hog wash.
I have lived on the Oregon Coast, and the Rocky Mountains in the last few years. Neither has any relationship to what he portrays as rural America.
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