Why are there so many Baptists here?

[Cary.Melvin]

Hello all,

I live in the South (Florida) and I have all my life. And I was wondering, why are there so many Baptists in the South?

Is there some historical reason for this?

Thanks,

 

[GreenEyedLady]

Not sure, probally the same reason why there are so many Catholics in Canada.
GEL

 

[theseed]

Well, there alot of Baptist in the US, they are the largest Christian group in the US. Many Christins, like the Puritans left Europe so they could worship God without persecution from the State Church--they would not be forced to beleive a certain way or worship a certain way because of the threat of imprisonment or death.

 

[Filia Mariae]

Well, there alot of Baptist in the US, they are the largest Christian group in the US. Many Christins, like the Puritans left Europe so they could worship God without persecution from the State Church--they would not be forced to beleive a certain way or worship a certain way because of the threat of imprisonment or death.

Actually, Catholics are the largest Christian group in the US. There are about 65 million American Catholics and 35 million American Baptists.

 

[theseed]

Actually, Catholics are the largest Christian group in the US. There are about 65 million American Catholics and 35 million American Baptists.

American Baptist does not include Southern Baptists

 

[theseed]

Southern Baptists are the largest baptist and protestant group in the United States, claiming 16 million members. According to the Religious Congregations Membership Study, the Convention had 15,922,039 members in 41,514 churches in the United States in 2000. It has 1,200 local associations, 41 state conventions and fellowships, and supports thousands of missionaries worldwide (over 10,000 in 2003). There are more Southern Baptist churches in America than of any other religious group including the Roman Catholic Church. Their greatest numbers are in the southern part of the United States, where they exert considerable influence. Many southern states have no lotteries or any gambling because of strong Baptist opposition to gambling. Also many counties are majority Southern Baptist and are "dry" counties because of their strong opposition to any alcohol consumption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention

 

[Sinai]

Actually, Catholics are the largest Christian group in the US. There are about 65 million American Catholics and 35 million American Baptists.

American Baptist does not include Southern Baptists

I suspect that Carly meant that there are approximately 35 million Baptists in America, rather than that there are about 35 million members of the American Baptist denomination (which would be a false statement).

 

[theseed]

I suspect that Carly meant that there are approximately 35 million Baptists in America, rather than that there are about 35 million members of the American Baptist denomination (which would be a false statement).

Yeah, I see that now. Here source still contradicts the Religious Congregations Membership Study,

 

[jukesk9]

Hello all,

why are there so many Baptists in the South?

Is there some historical reason for this?

Thanks,

Being the history geek I am, I'll answer Yes. It has to do with the settling of our country. You can break down the regions of the country to see who settled what and there your religious influences will be. For example, the Southeast has (or had) the heaviest concentration of Episcopalians. Most of your aristocrats from England settled in these areas. The major cities of the Northeast have heavy Catholic populations because of the mass influx of immigrants from Catholic countries during the 1800s. The Southwest is heavily Catholic because of years of Spanish rule. Minnesota and Wisconsin have a large Lutheran populations because these areas were primarliy settled by folks from Scandanavia.

The South, containing mostly rural and uneducated folks, was very receptive to the Great Awakening pioneered by John Edwards in the mid-18th Century. Missions weren't undertaken in the North because most folks had already decided on a denomination and most educated folks weren't receptive to the idea of autonomous churches, thus a big difference between Southern and Northern Baptists. The South was ripe for evangelization. And hats off to the Baptists because they had a zeal for evangelizing. By 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention was founded.

 

[Polycarp1]

Yeah, I see that now. Here source still contradicts the Religious Congregations Membership Study,

Not arguing, just curious -- do you have accurate round numbers for this? Living in rural North Carolina near the Triangle, we've got a lot of SBC churches here -- but also a bunch of "Free Will Baptists" (a denomination I'd never heard of until moving here), a few Primitive Baptists, quite a lot of National Baptists (the two predominantly Black Baptist denominations both use this name), two Cooperative Baptist Fellowships (the liberals and moderates who withdrew from the SBC when Paige Patterson took over), and a fair number of unaffiliated Baptist churches. My hunch is that those numbers are fairly close to accurate, given the 15 million SBC affiliate members and easily that many ABC, NBC, NBC-Inc., CBF, FWB, and "other" put together.

 

[Lotar]

Actually, Catholics are the largest Christian group in the US. There are about 65 million American Catholics and 35 million American Baptists.

When all the different Baptist groups are added together, there are closer to 40 million, and there are about 50 million Catholics. There are almost as many Baptists in the US as there are Catholics. I'm not sure why Baptists are so predominant in the South.

Baptists in the South, Catholics and Mormons in the West, Lutherans in the North, Episcopalians and Methodists in the East.

 

[theseed]

The South, containing mostly rural and uneducated folks,

Hey!!!

 

[theseed]

Sweet, a Transformer avatar.

 

[jukesk9]

Hey!!!

Fellow Southerner here...I still don't trust Yankees...but I'm just stating what I learned in my sociology classes in college.....

 

[Job24]

Actually, Catholics are the largest Christian group in the US. There are about 65 million American Catholics and 35 million American Baptists.

EHHHHHH wrong...that is a fallacy...according to the magazine Christianity Today ( the largest Christian publication in the world) Baptists or Protestants far outway the Catholic belief...if you think about it, the entire south, west, and midwest are not catholic..they are only concentrated in certain areas of the country like New england and the far west like WA and CA....

 

[Lotar]

EHHHHHH wrong...that is a fallacy...according to the magazine Christianity Today ( the largest Christian publication in the world) Baptists or Protestants far outway the Catholic belief...if you think about it, the entire south, west, and midwest are not catholic..they are only concentrated in certain areas of the country like New england and the far west like WA and CA....

Protestants as a whole outnumber Catholics 2 to 1 in the US, but Baptists alone are somewhat smaller. Of course world wide Catholics outnumber Protestants slightly more than 2 to 1, and Baptists 14 to 1. 2/3s of Baptists live in the USA, and the majority of those in the South.

 

[theseed]

Fellow Southerner here...I still don't trust Yankees...but I'm just stating what I learned in my sociology classes in college.....

OK, all is forgiven