WTF? A natural-born atheist in the Bible Belt...

OK, I'm back in Los Angeles after spending Xmas at my Mom's house. In the buckle of the Bible Belt, Upstate South Carolina. (Not too far from Bob Jones University.)

My mother has a friend she has known for many years. When anything breaks at her house, he comes over and fixes it. He's always around to help her out, any time of day or night, and will never accept any payment. He also helps a lot of other people in the area.

According to my Mom, something like this is his credo: "I don't belong to any church and don't believe in any religion. I don't tithe 10 per cent of my income like church members do, but helping other people is the way I give my 10 per cent."

Considering the area, where the social pressure is incredibly strong to belong to a church, this is just amazing to me.

My mom says his mother never went to church or cared for religion either, so maybe he just came by it via heredity.

Anyway, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I've known the guy for a long time myself, but I never knew that about him.

We're both atheists. She and I both grew up as believers - me, a fairly liberal Lutheran in rural Minnesota, and her a poor Southern Baptist fire-and-brimstone gal. But she has told me enough stories, and warned me when we visit, just how pervasive religious belief is down there. I can totally understand your shock at that guy's credo. I'm sure that's how you'd have to go about it, though. Establish a really good rep (in the South, that's gold) first, and just don't bring it up if you don't have to.

"Trixie, my dog, has got this Bible. It's got two verses.

One: 'There ain't no magic and there never was.'

Number two: 'Nobody can see into the future.'

A dog wrote it over five thousand years ago and it cuts through a lot of" - he whispered - "shit."

:rofl:

From The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton. Who is from North Carolina and teaches at UNC-Wilmington.

The protagonist orders crates of free complimentary Bibles from various Xian outfits. Then he cuts out the page that says "Compliments of..." and sells them. The quote above is from his Uncle Jack.

between bible Christians and church Christians. The former are well known, well tolerated, and well loved in the bible soaked south. They're people who keep their consciences to themselves, who go along to get along, but who will never, ever enter a church. They even avoid weddings and funerals.

The south, as you pointed out, is socially organized around the churches. However, a few outliers are tolerated as long as they say the right words.

Most people just don't die as atheists since they start believing in Jesse et al at some point after they're born.