These Are the Most Godless Cities in America

[cbayer]

http://time.com/3676607/american-bible-society-cities/

Sam Frizell
Jan. 21, 2015


Boston, Mass.
Getty Images

Based on how much residents read the Bible

At the end of the age, according to Matthew, the angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous. Well, they should have an easy time of it: The wicked are, roughly speaking, already somewhere north of St. Louis.

That’s where the least “Bible-minded” cities are in America, at least according to a study released Wednesday by the American Bible Society.

Cities in the Northeast appear to have strayed furthest from the upright path, with wicked dens of iniquity like Providence, R.I., New Bedford, Mass., Albany, N.Y., and Boston, Mass., leading the list for least Bible-minded. Also on the naughty list are San Francisco, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and gambler’s haven Las Vegas.

The American Bible Society measures “Bible-mindedness” by how strictly survey respondents read the book and believe in its accuracy. A spokesperson told TIME last year that the study poses respondents the question, “How many times do you read the bible outside of church or a synagogue?”

more at link

[hrmjustin]

1. I would say here in NYC there is still plenty of believers.

Brooklyn is kniwn as the borough of churches.

[cbayer]

2. As with everything else, NYC is so diverse.

Probably why it doesn't show up on the list.

[hrmjustin]

3. Agreed!

[Jim__]

10. At least New York managed to squeeze into the top ten.

Source:

Least Bible-Minded Cities (previous year’s ranking)
91. New York (89)
92. Phoenix, Arizona (93)
93. Buffalo, New York (95)
94. Hartford/New Haven, Connecticut (94)
95. Las Vegas, Nevada (90)
96. Cedar Rapids, Iowa (96)
97. San Francisco (97)
98. Boston, Massachusetts (98)
99. Albany, New York (99)
100. Providence, Rhode Island/ New Bedford, Massachusetts (100)

[edhopper]

4. So

"The American Bible Society measures “Bible-mindedness” by how strictly survey respondents read the book and believe in its accuracy"


It's a survey about how many fundy literalist live in any city. Not believers / non believers in any given city?

Let me guess, the South wins.

[cbayer]

6. Yes, it is clearly a single measure that reflects something but

can't really be said to reflect what the title claims.

As for bible reading, yes, the south appears to win.

[rug]

11. I bet it's more on how many Bibles are sold, not read, in a given city.

There's no way to measure if anyone reads it.

[cbayer]

12. Unless I am misunderstanding this, I think the question was

"Did you read the bible this week other than when you were at church".

[rug]

13. Ah, similar to the "how often do you masturbate question".

[cbayer]

15. Exactly. Very unreliable.

[NYC_SKP]

17. Hey, I can answer that question very reliably.

And I'll just leave that there.

[longship]

18. We are all waiting for the details.

But it would likely be alerted.

Better to let it be in our imaginations.

Better for you, too. One might think.

Surely, a great post on your part. So they say...

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. "The most Bible-minded respondents ... believe strongly that it is accurate"

That's a pretty subjective definition. Someone may know the bible so well that they know it contradicts itself, often disagrees with outside sources, or makes significant claims that aren't corroborated elsewhere. 'Bible-minded' seems to mean "sees the Bible the way the American Bible Society sees it".

[cbayer]

7. Those are the two measure - how often it is read and how accurate they think it is.

It would be difficult to accurately correlate that with much of anything, imo.

Interesting that even using their own standards, they find only 27% of people are "bible-minded" at all.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. I suspect that most church congregants rarely read the Bible on their own.

That's what the preacher is for.

[cbayer]

9. I think in mainline protestant and catholic churches you are right.

But I think black protestants, evangelicals and fundamentalists read it a lot. Would be interesting to see the data.

[pinto]

14. Catholics, in my experience, don't routinely read the bible. Not surprised at Boston's position.

Agree, the data and methodology would be interesting.

[cbayer]

16. Right. I don't think you can draw the conclusions they draw based on the

questions asked.

But still, interesting.

[brooklynite]

19. How did Phoenix beat us out?

It's catholic and it's Republican.

[cbayer]

20. It's based on who says they read the bible between church services.

I wouldn't take it too seriously.