snitsnat <snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> As Deb Rogers and I have noted, however, we've observed somewhat
> different
> patterns in our respective states, TexASS and the Giant Wang.
>
> Also, Nancy Ammerman, studying fundamentalists in Connecticut
> during the
> early 80s, noted that the members of these churches were among the
> professional managerial strata.
>
> Here, membership in many of the "just christian" churches is
> important part
> of social status.
I can't second this observation enough. While TexASS has had a culture of this sort for many years (at least from the 1950's forward), it is exploding exponentially. I wish I had the time to go into so many specifics and details, but deadlines await (argh). Involvement in christian churches in at least two highly populated states is the new snakeoil to power, success and invincibility, permeating everything from white collar boardrooms to the blue collar electrician who just bought his first Hummer. Why? 'Cause Gawd will provide the gas, fool! But it isn't all just about God or finding Jesus or joining the throngs in the Rapture. It's about class; it's another attempt at trying to enhance mobility in one's status and rank.
> Deb has worked in law firms for years. She has been noticing that
> it's more
> and more acceptable for lawyers to express their faith in public.
> Budge
> (posts rarely) has noted that it's not uncommon at his engineering
> firm for
> people to plaster all kinds of stuff around their desks indicating
> fundamentalist Christian views or to shoot e-mail out to the whole
> company
> regarding some Christian fundraising event or whathaveyou.
Yes. And I'm seeing more such expressions become divisive in the office, too, with business clients asking for attorneys with a "christian" perspective or Christian attorneys referring to "our Jewish brethern" when speaking of Jewish attorneys.
It didn't use to matter! Everyone called each other by their name or an expletive under breath, not by religious affiliation. Hell, I thought the most important thing in the feudal world of a law firm is billable hours, not who's invited to the Rapture!
> Not sure what my point is, but I'd be careful about making
> generalizations
> about how people naturally move toward this or that end of the
> spectrum.
> What I think is happening is a polarization.
Agreed. I'm living in one of the epicenters of this re-christianized culture, so it's difficult to be objective. (I live for signs of rebellion and the demise of the social conservatives that ChuckO and Doug occasionally report from the outerlands!) But this cultural shift should never be painted as only the rise of the religious and the theists when it's a mixed battle for power, status and fortune, too.
- Deb