DRIVING THROUGH THE BIBLE BELT

Your Sunday Miserable Epistle-

DRIVING THROUGH THE BIBLE BELT

For twenty seven years I have taken the diagonal roads/blue highways back from Arizona to my home in the upper midwest.

I have watched with alarm in these Bible Belt States, every year seems to be getting worse, the decay is continuing unabated.

The states that I drive through often rage about “no new taxes” rather than debate about how their tax dollars should be spent?

The “RAGE” gets all the votes and carries the day but these states have many parts that seem to be languishing in deepening and continuing poverty?

In some towns the sidewalks are buckled and there is a four inch drop from one sidewalk paver to another.

Most of these sidewalks are embossed with W.P.A. it was the last time of outside infusion into their communities had a significant effect.

Federal dollars did wonders eighty years ago to assist these communities and yet there they sit, never having seemed to contribute to their own infrastructure?

The regional communities of twenty thousand or more seem to be holding their own and many are thriving but the small towns of five to fifteen thousand seem to struggle mightily.

Mega farmers and ranchers in West Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and even parts of Nebraska have everything.

Indeed they have big investments and big expenses, that goes right along with gathering exceedingly abundant assets.

These farmers are now appearing to be small fiefdoms unto themselves and if a crop occasionally fails a government check may miraculously appear in the mail.

All the while the “town folks” survive on the new additions to their community, a fire hall, a fire truck (9-11 federal dollars) and the one new stand alone commercial building …the Dollar Store, it is their “go to” place.

The Dollar Store has become a strong hold and bastion for many of these dwindling towns.

Small towns continue to languish in these blue highway regions.

The depression era commercial buildings are crumbling in decay, the state highways are in such bad condition that the shoulders of the roads are non existent, the pot holes are near deadly at fifty miles an hour.

After decades of slow decline few seem to be alarmed by this entropy. The local population has become accustomed to less infrastructure (and they know where the pot holes are)

They are so close to the situation … it isn’t noticed.

Many that may have understood this noticeable blight……have moved away.

Decades ago we called it the “Brain Drain”.

Mile after mile reveal the unrented buildings in these small town main streets.

It reveals the entire abandonment of the buildings, no one is left to board them up. I hope I have been sensitive enough to the local populations….I haven’t photographed them.

While driving hundreds and hundreds of miles through these towns I see brand new shiny churches advertising their faith as they proselytize.

Much of the new construction are the evangelical churches, they are the bulwark and response to this insidious decay, they create a rallying cry for Jesus (not realizing he was into social justice).

As I leave the town, I see Main Street in my rear view mirror, a town that died years ago…

A few resourceful immigrants have created bright spots here and there, food trucks, taco shops, tire shops, though most are employed in a packing plant line processing hogs.

Most all of these states have been exceedingly slow to respond to their demise and their only response seems to be anger at government.

I suspect many have been slow to recognize and appreciate the new found promise in their immigrants.

There are Immigrants willing to stay their small town….a town that appears to have limited promise.

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The power in politics rests in the hands of privileged , many are tired old white people that are unwilling to break free of their prejudicial bonds.

In the meager reaches of the Great Plains lies an untapped wealth of people yearning for some ability to better themselves.

They are the unrecognized minorities, the undocumented, the immigrants that have risked their lives to be someplace that will allow them Freedom.

Freedom from fear of oppression and murder & freedom to prosper.

It is precisely the ethos that the Statue of Liberty professes…”The Tired, the Poor and Hungry”.

This is the critical regenerating spirit that we have used for nearly two centuries and it has allowed us to prosper like no other nation.

When white radical intolerance gets in the way of this concept our nation becomes a shadow of itself.

Be not afraid of those that do not look like you.

Seek No Further, For they are people finding their way just like your great grandparents did a century ago.

We will all be the better for allowing them to pursue their ambitions just like your great grand parents.

Part Two

HISTORY OF THE CROFTING MOVEMENT AND THE CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BIBLE BELT.

My friend Dale has asked me this question;

How and why did this region become the “Bible belt”?

My answer is rudimentary and non-academic but I suspect this answers his question.;

1780 through 1820 the Scots Irish and many others were immigrating / streaming thru the Cumberland Gap (of the Daniel Boone era).

They were being pushed off their crofts in Scotland and Ireland.

Large land owners like the Duke of Southerland realized that raising sheep on their land was more profitable than renting their land to poor potato farmers that could barely eke out a living.

They were banished.

The Highland Clearances of Scotland eliminated crofters and pushed hundreds of thousands of poor farmers off the land that they had worked for generations.

The potato famines left many destitute and many were given passage to far flung places like Australia and the United States.

Heaviest years of concern were the 1820’s but continued into the later part of the century.

The United State found the Scots Irish migrating to the upland south and to the west, Westward meant the Ohio River.

The Ohio River was the interstate transport system of the day, they used any aquatic means of conveyance, boats, barges and rafts, some followed trails and paths along the river.

The expansion and numbers of immigrants wanting their chance at land ownership was astounding.

Along with these pioneers were people wanting to spread and maintain the word of GOD to this moving expanding mass of humanity.

The mainstream religions had always required “college educated” pastors and ministers to provide religious education.

These pastors relied on hundreds of books of knowledge that they had come to understand and yet they affirmed that the Bible (which was written by man), contained their guiding principles.

Very few of these college educated pastors were to be found on this exodus of travelers westward.

There were simply not enough educated clergy to fulfill this need in this expansive new found territory.

However, The Baptists and other evangelical denominations at this time required little to no education.

Many required nothing more than “the feeling of the spirit” to move you.

Henceforth, these Self Ordained preachers needed little or no encouragement.

They seized the moment grabbed their Bibles and hopped on their horses. They set out to claim their territory with little or no religious formal academic training.

This exodus into the “wilderness” led to divergent interpretations and theologies in Christian beliefs.

In some parts of Bible belt (as we know it today) , there are some people claiming Christianity that are also known for their “snake handling” and all sorts of curious religious traditions not founded in the academic realms of mainstream society.

Since these early times many have come to build great temples of worship in part pushed forth by the Highland Clearances of crofting and the crofters.

Today, Many of these places are known far and wide for their expansive tele-evangelism programs, their devout and cock sure knowledge of Jesus.

They spend much of their time addressing the hereafter, enjoying new houses and fancy cars that would impress the 4th Duke of Southerland, while their congregations eke out their livings much like their crofting ancestors. billkeitel

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Thanks Dale for the question! Bk