A true trip to Fundieland.

Though I am in the middle of a move to California, I was born and spent the next twenty-two years in Virginia. I am not horribly fond of my conservative home state, but it does have the special place in my heart as I have found many friends, my husband, and have had plenty of good experiences there. I read a few months ago about someone's trip to Virginia, to Williamsburg especially, and was informed, much to my surprise, that Virginia is, in fact, a fundie heartland.

Now, most of my life was spent in the Northern, suburb of D.C., portion of the state, but I did go to college in an area just 20-30 miles east of Williamsburg. I feel as though I know the area decently well, and I have never felt such undertones there. We had a lot of missionaries come to the house my now-husband and I rented with some friends, but I attributed this to the fact that we were living in the middle of a poorer community, which tends towards more religious feelings and more missions taking advantage of said poverty.

Now, the main point of the article was the religious-based revisionist history going on in Williamsburg and Mount Vernon, wherein the Deist, not very religious, Founders are being painted as devout Christians so as to misinform the public about America's Christian heritage (and excuse their refusal to acknowledge the importance of the idea of the separation of Church and State). And that, I agree, is very alarming and bad. However, I'm sure that it would likely take place no matter where the founding of the US occurred.

If not at the site, at least in some history books, and I'm sure that it would be glossed over. Even in areas that tend towards liberal, many people are Christian, and in a lot of cases, people don't like history that mentions moral Europeans that aren't Christian. This doesn't make things right, by any means, but I doubt that location truly matters, especially when the caretakers of such places tend towards older families, especially on the East Coast.

I'm about to go to college in a very liberal area of California, but the first non-departmental email I received was a ministry for international graduate students. There is nothing wrong with this, but to assume that highly religious people do not live in liberal places, that they do not find ways to have influence, is rather presumptuous.

In Virginia, religion is handled much the same way it is in many states: you're assumed Christian, a few Churches are very active, especially in poorer communities, but it's a background sort of thing. It's the normal state of things in many states. Virginia is conservative, and I am sure there are some parts that are very religious as well, but the state isn't a fundie haven.

I know, because I just spent the past two days driving through true fundieland states. My drive to New Mexico (not horribly efficient, but it was free lodging with the in-laws that have helped us move out this far) had a rather Bible Belt heavy drive. We spent two days going through Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

I had always known in the back of my mind that these places were part of a different cultural heritage than my own, a place full of Southern feeling and lots of religious fervor. However, I had expected to not really notice it as someone just driving through the states. Perhaps I'd overhear a few conversations at dinner, but whatever, that's what makes them happy; if it is a big part of your life, by all means chat with your friends.

I did not expect the billboards.

Well, to be fair, one of the first things I witnessed over the Arkansas border was a gigantic cross stationed in front of a large, nearly featureless, Church. I wonder how much the parishioners paid for that pointless symbol? Would not the money have been better spent on items such as caring for the poor or other forms of charity? It just seemed so superfluous.

As soon as I crossed from Tennessee to Arkansas (an armpit of a state, but that's another story), I began to see advertisements for Churches, religious stores, simple reminders of doctrine. My favorite one in Arkansas read simply "thou shalt not commit adultery." It seemed such an odd statement to put on a billboard, a sad statement to how well Evangelical morality is doing in good old Arkansas. Or perhaps, it is simply a way for them to feel smug? A way to bring up sex simply in a shameful context, to cement the idea that adultry = bad and sex outside of marriage = adultery? It felt both strange and skeezy to me.

I have never really seen such billboards in any area of Virginia that I visited, not even when going through the poorer, rural Southwestern portion of Virginia, not even one of those ones that preach and are simply signed "-God." All I've ever seen are the normal, small signs out in front of Churches. God wasn't part of a larger ad campaign there, it just was, existing in the place where it belonged: in people's homes, hearts, and Churches.

In Texas, we passed by the "largest cross in the Western Hemisphere," the sign for which informed me that it would be quite the spiritual experience for me. All my husband could think of was that there was obviously a larger cross in the Eastern Hemisphere, and how strange that seemed when considering the general religious make-up of Asia and a good portion of said Hemisphere (where is it, Australia? New Zealand?).

Said cross, which we could see from the highway thanks to the wondrous plains of the Midwest, looked to be made of the exact same materials as the giant cross in Arkansas, without the excuse of a Church in front.

It's almost like in this area, everyone comes at religion like it is a war to be one, like they are trying to outdo one another in shows of Godliness. It's rather strange, and very different from any form of religion that I was brought up around.

When we stopped for dinner at a vaguely famous (and very delicious) Texas steakhouse, a youth group stopped by for a big deal of an outing. They were called "God's Army," (my cheap potshot is that it sounds like a combination Bible study and gun club) and again, this raised Catholic atheist was floored by the attitude attached to Christianity here, making religion a battle to be won, a land to be conquered under God, a place where loud and proud is apparently more important than actual works of charity and support. I can easily see how fundie attitudes of fighting against this atheistic nation and pushing God down everyone's throat develop and flourish here. In fact, it seems to fit with what I saw of how religion is practiced in some areas: outdo each other, make the strongest outward appearance of godliness. It's rather chilling.

To use an old cliche, it was like visiting another country. I have never felt so out of place in this country. Even in Japan, I knew where I stood and felt that I had more in common with my Japanese friends than I likely did with the prevailing attitudes in the Bible Belt. It was likely the first time in a lifetime of overseas travel that I have fully experienced culture shock. I could only sit there, amazed, as I read each sign to my husband, a mix of amused and shocked that it was all serious.

No, I know that Virginia has many fundie values ("ew gays and women," for an example), and that religion is rather matter-of-fact, but I would not paint it as "Fundieland." To do so only makes the greater movement taking place in the Bible Belt look a bit more harmless to those that live in Conservative Virginia. If they are like Virginia, it can't be that bad, eh?