A couple of weeks ago, Gallup released a poll that details how the states vary on church attendance. Gallup’s latest effort on measuring religious practices is drawn from its daily tracking interviews in 2014. It sought to tap how often Americans in each state attended church, synagogue, or mosque.
The study found that ten of the top 12 states with the highest religious attendance are in the South, along with Utah and Oklahoma. The least religious part of the nation is found in New England and the Northwest, with Vermont leading the pack.
Mormons are the most practicing of any religious group and they dominate in Utah; Baptists and blacks are also known for their church-going; this explains the high numbers in the South. New England and the Northwest are regions that are heavily secular.
From other studies, especially the work of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, we know that the most religious states are known for their conservative values, and the least religious are bastions of liberalism. More important, the former are also the most generous, as measured by charitable giving and voluntarism, and the latter are the least generous.
Here’s the bottom line: liberal secularists are a social liability, living off the moral capital of practicing Christians and Jews.
