A faithful reader pointed out to me that USA Today has published the breakdown of religious affiliation state-by-state using a very cool Flash graphical display. Just put your cursor over a state to see the breakdown.
The most important category, to me, is “unaffiliated,” which would indicate the most “unchurched,” although a person might self-identify as “unaffiliated” and yet have grown up in a church, and someone might self-identify as “evangelical Christian” despite not having been to church in years.
It’s a fascinating tool.
About Jay F Guin
My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink.
My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
“It’s a fascinating tool.” for what? unaffiliated does not necessarily mean “ripe for the picking” most of then will give you a “good” reason they remain unaffiliated.
LOL! Laymond — always enjoy your posts.
Very cool tool. Fascinating: The state with the lowest number of unaffiliated (Mississippi) is also probably the poorest state. The state with the highest number of unaffiliated (Vermont) is definitely the whitest state, and one of (if not, the) wealthiest states.
I knew the North Eastern states were largely Catholic but I was surprised that California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Nebraska were majority Catholic. Having worked many time in Nebraska, I figured Lutherans to be predominate there.
Here in our wonderful state of Louisiana I’m quite sure they didn’t poll the prisons and jails. Many of our former politicians are there so the uncommitted and the others would be higher had they polled the inmate population.