Belief in New England:

Belief in New England: Evangelists increasingly target Northeast ‘mission field’
By JAY LINDSAY Associated Press | Posted: Saturday, October 31, 2009 1:30 am

WATERTOWN, Mass. - It's hard to tell in the quiet of a color-splashed autumn morning, but Redeemer Fellowship Church is trying to set roots in a rough neighborhood. For churches, anyway.

Until this new church opened last month, its 19th-century Congregational church building in suburban Watertown was empty for nearly two years. Just across the street, a closed Baptist church is filled with condos. So is a former Catholic church a half mile away.

Dead churches are a familiar story in New England, which recent surveys indicate is now the least religious region in the country. But some see opportunity in a place where America's Christian faith laid its roots.

"You look at this area and it's a great area of potential, it's a great area of need," said Redeemer Fellowship pastor Chris Bass, a Houston native.

Several Christian denominations see New England as a "mission field" - a term often associated with unchurched, foreign lands. As they evangelize and work to plant new churches, they speak of possibility, but also frustration. The area's highly educated population is skeptical and often indifferent to their faith.

"About once every hour, I give up. It's tough, man," said a half-joking Joe Souza, a Southern Baptist missionary working north of Boston. "It's like, you found a cure for cancer and you want to give it away and nobody wants it."

Trinity College's American Religious Identification Survey released this year showed New England overtaking the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region in the country. Twenty-two percent of respondents here said they have no religious faith of any kind, highest in the country.

In a Gallup poll this year, all six New England states were in the Top 10 least religious in the country, with Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts claiming the top four spots.

New England's religious apathy has developed over decades, but it's striking where the Pilgrims landed seeking religious freedom and the great 18th-century preacher Jonathan Edwards helped spark the First Great Awakening. Stately churches near town centers all over the region are reminders of the central importance religion once held.
http://www.missoulian.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/religion/article_ad327068-c59c-11de-8bc2-001cc4c002e0.html

I submit: The well educated New Englanders should send some of their best and brightest to the under-educated parts of the U.S. to see if they can get them up to speed in the on going unemployment problem.

The technique seems to be free vacation bible schools in the summer, and lots and lots of kids programs at the church that attract families with young kids who aren't too picky about their theology. I do think people are looking for a sense of community. Unfortunately these enticements often work.

OTOH, my Episcopal church has seen quite an increase in young families with children. The pews just about burst with little wiggly ones these days. (Which I love).

Also, it's not all about New Englanders being anti-religious, so much as private. We don't tend toward the making a big fuss about our religion or church or whatever. Privacy and reticence are part of the culture here.

That's not privacy or reticence. That's non-belief.

Does that make it a glass three-quarters full or one-quarter empty sort of thing?

In any event, it's not common to see it publicized here as it can be elsewhere. The tendency to wear your heart (or religion or denomination as it were) on your sleeve is creeping in here, but I'd say we're well behind in the amount of creep.

Especially on a survey, where people are still shamed by the majority believers from admitting their non-belief.

Most often, people are hesitant to ask about those sort of things. And "atheist" is likely to raise far fewer eyebrows than say, "Pentecostal".

I've never met one.

would claim to be an atheist (yes, an atheist!) to avoid admitting their true beliefs.

Having known more than a few Pentecostals, I'd have to say that would be about as likely as an orthodox Jew eating a bacon cheeseburger.

My point was that someone announcing their atheism would likely be met with... well, not much of anything. "oh, ok, that's nice". It's more likely someone calling themselves a Pentecostal would receive the raised eyebrow.

I just don't believe you. But I can see why some believers would be threatened by the idea that there are more non-believers, though, and feel a need to come up with a really strained rationalization to explain it.

or more to the point, why what you're saying has anything to do with what I said.

My point is just that non-believers don't threaten or surprise most people here. Religious extremists might.

Where your claim of believers (I take it in this instance, me) are threatened by the existence of non-believers comes from is beyond me.

Your posts on this subthread have been all about trying to come up with ways to deny the fact that non-belief is growing, particularly in the Northeast, which has now become the United States' least religious region.

It is hard to draw any other conclusion than you feel a bit threatened by, or just uncomfortable with that fact.

and I do wonder where you're reading that.

And I don't feel threatened by that in the least.

This is not New England but I live in a pocket where being religious or non-religious does not seem to be a big deal for the most part. Of course there are the groups who wear religion on their sleeves everywhere we go. New England is not exempt. In my area of the country (suburban DC) we do have missionaries knocking on doors and I see Jesus fish on people's cars everyday.

But this is a place where not being affiliated (or being affiliated) is not a big deal. This is a place where not being religious is not a big deal. I could see religious conversations started by a religious person being more of a taboo than an atheist being who he/she is: a person who does not believe.

The interesting question would be what percentage of the 78% of "religious" New Englanders care that the other 22% lack belief. I tend to believe that the percentage is much smaller than most parts of the country. And that is true for many pockets of the country where you encounter more diversity.

I would feel more at home in New England where my position on religion is not a big deal than in other parts of the country where what I believe or don't believe seems to be more of a bigger deal.

She is. Even going so far as to claim that some believers are skewing the results by claiming to be atheists rather than admit their beliefs. I'd like to see SOME kind of justification for that, because it would be unheard of. Skewing of religious views in surveys is almost universally the other way.

However, I am not sure if she is disputing it either. I think there is a misunderstanding. But only she can truly confirm this and make this clear.

"Privacy and reticence" being part of the culture of New England does not mean that religious folk would go that far to keep their religious opinion private. Yes, it is silly to say that someone would claim to be an atheist in a poll in order to preserve privacy.

But what I thought she meant was that "Privacy and reticence" is part of the culture where she lives so, in the day-to-day interaction of New Englanders, it would be strange to see a guy wearing his religion on his sleeve. Consequently, anti-religion sentiments (not lack of faith) are not so strong when the non-religious are not being attacked or smothered like they are in other parts of the country.

Consequently, anti-religion sentiments (not lack of faith) are not so strong when the non-religious are not being attacked or smothered like they are in other parts of the country.

Which of course also correlates to a population that is overall higher in non-belief (as well as educated) as the Northeast is.

And I would go further to say that I agree with your statement from the previous post when you said, "Skewing of religious views in surveys is almost universally the other way."

I don't think I addressed that in my previous post when it complements what I wrote about how it would be "silly to say that someone would claim to be an atheist in a poll in order to preserve privacy."

But yes, I think that what happens in New England also correlates to a population that is overall higher in non-belief and a well educated population.

And I continue to be completely puzzled by how what I said got to be interpreted as a dispute of the poll.

But thank you for making that all much more clear!

I never said any of that. Ever.

My only point (which Meshuga probably made more clear), is that around here, a non-believer is less likely to be any sort of big deal (at all), than a religious extremist would be.

Your just trying to say that it's not a big deal when people admit they are atheists, and that people would look more strangely at a pentecostal than an atheist. Which is the way it should be ANYWHERE, because pentecostals are nucking futs.

Precisely one. My aunt. I still don't understand how she manages to mesh her faith and her politics, but the bottom line is that she is a hell of a person. I do wish more Pentecostals were like her.

and hey, if it weren't for my aunt I'd agree with you. I grew up Pentecostal, and I don't know any other progressives in that faith.

New England seems to have reached a tiping point on why it pays to be competitive.

This Forum seems over run with non believers. I wonder how we stack up in the area of retirment, personal happyness and rewarding jobs?

what Afghanistan was to Russia.

Spend all your money trying to convert us. You'll be bankrupt!

and some of the other NE states. So, even the Christians who are there aren't REAL Christians! :)