Were there doctrinal problems? More than you could shake a stick at. But there was also an unvarnished devotion to the two Great Commandments. And such love covers a multitude of catechetical misfires. The Bible Belt Christians who raised me could not always give you chapter and verse, but they were always ready with a cup of cold water. At the end of the day, it is the one who offers a cool drink that receives the prophet’s reward, not the one who remembers all the names of the prophets. 

There are almost as many churches as there are people in the small southern town where I live. You will scarcely meet a person who isn’t a member of one (or more) of them, though few have faithfully attended Sunday services since at least the Clinton administration. But even the local dope dealers and bootleggers can quote long passages from the Bible with scribal accuracy. While they may not, on the advice of counsel, admit to committing any crimes, they would be quick to confess many particular sins. And that is no small thing.

Some time ago, one leading evangelical influencer rejoiced over the decline of “Bible Belt Religion,” commenting that it “made bad people worse.” More recently, another Christian pundit took another swing at the cultural Christianity of the South, one of his favorite punching bags, calling it a form of “toxic religion” that is, at best, an expression of the Faith to be “survived.”

One can imagine fewer complaints from the South if her critics held everyone over the fiery pit like one of Edwards’s unfortunate spiders, and did so with equal contempt. But there seems to be a bit of socio-theological dissonance at play. On the one hand, cultures that are overtly pagan, unbelieving, or outright anti-god are viewed through the starry eye of Pelagian optimism. While on the other hand, the imperfect religious expressions of the Bible Belt are met with the clenched fist of an Augustinianism gone to seed. The latter is denounced as utterly depraved with all of the fervor of a tent-revivalist, while the former are patted on the head like some tame race of noble savages.

Just so, barring a faulty eschatology or kind of theological schizophrenia, one is left to draw the conclusion that those who dislike “Bible Belt Religion” really just dislike the Bible Belt. But for my part, I thank God for the Bible Belt people who introduced me to Jesus.

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