Evangelists Target New England

[LuvNewcastle]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091028/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today

Several Christian denominations see New England as a "mission field" — a term often associated with unchurched, foreign lands. As they evangelize and work to plant new churches, they speak of possibility, but also frustration. The area's highly educated population is skeptical and often indifferent to their faith.

"About once every hour, I give up. It's tough, man," said a half-joking Joe Souza, a Southern Baptist missionary working north of Boston. "It's like, you found a cure for cancer and you want to give it away and nobody wants it."

Trinity College's American Religious Identification Survey released this year showed New England overtaking the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region in the country. Twenty-two percent of respondents here said they have no religious faith of any kind, highest in the country.

In a Gallup poll this year, all six New England states were in the Top 10 least religious in the country, with Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts claiming the top four spots.

[S_E_Fudd]

1. Cure for Cancer? Ha!

More like a cure for free thinking and self reliance...

[BurtWorm]

15. Or cancer itself.

[stopbush]

2. Nobody wants the fantasies the Xians are peddling, least of all those living in NE.

Believing that religion is a "cure" for anything is sophistry at its worse.

[rurallib]

3. Maybe they can just keep going to Greenland

I heard there was but a few Xtians there.

[Tesha]

20. If they do, though, they'll be (say it with me) "Unemployed in Greenland!!!"

[DJ13]

4. I've got news for them

The Pilgrims were there first.

[MineralMan]

5. Pie in the sky when you die? You betcha. Jebus is the Piemaker.

Don't want pie? Then you'll go to Hell when you die.

Jebus will keep you alive forever...AND there's pie.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. Like a big pizza pie? That's amoral

with sharp teeth and some fins? that a moray.

[Ian David]

6. Glad to know things are getting better despite the fundies' best efforts. n/t

[Ian David]

9. The Cake is a LIE! n/t

[eShirl]

7. It's not as if there aren't any born again, evangelical, pentecostal, etc, here already.

They're all over the place.

[KansDem]

8. Lets see, "The area's highly educated population..." means "...least religious in the country"

I wonder why that is? :shrug:

...not really ;)

[MineralMan]

10. Want a Mansion in Heaven? Let Jebus be your Realtor!

It's free! And it's tons better than a hot water flat in Hell, I guarandamntee.

Call Jebus today!

www.jebusrealty.com

[sharp_stick]

11. Yeah good for us

so nice to be recognized for something so worthy. Getting rid of evangelical holy rollers should be a cause for celebration.

[yellowcanine]

12. "...you found a cure for cancer and you want to give it away and nobody wants it."

Uh Joe, maybe that is because you are peddling laetrile?

[CurtEastPoint]

13. Last year someone I worked with solicited donation so they could go preach in GERMANY.

Sadly, I declined. Germany? WTF?

[knitter4democracy]

18. Mission trip-lite.

They just wanted a trip to Germany, and that was how they figured they'd do it. There are many evangelical churches that send missionaries to Europe (can't fathom that one, frankly), and then they send mission teams to help out. I figure it's because it's so much easier to send people there and so much easier for people to live there.

I have good friends who were Eastern Orthodox missionaries in Albania, working to help rebuild that country, get a medical clinic going, start an orphanage for those orphaned in the war, and more--and they did this for Orthodox, Muslim, whoever needed it. Those people at least were helping the poor and doing their best to help patch up the Muslim/Orthodox split. Germany? Why would Germany need yet another church?

[Davis_X_Machina]

14. We have perfectly respectable

Northern Baptists --they've been here since they were the leading edge of the Abolitionist movement in the 1850's. Lovely people. Whyever would we trade them in for Southern Baptists?

[WildEyedLiberal]

17. I don't think it has as much to do with atheism as New Englanders' intense sense of privacy

New Englanders have always regarded religion as a deeply personal matter that is NOT something you share or evangelize with other people. Most religious people in New England belong to mainstream religions - they are Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Jewish. The idea of "spreading the faith" and preaching it to your neighbor is anathema to New Englanders. It's not surprising that evangelical Christianity is going over like a lead balloon - their entire method and mindset is very at odds with the culture in the northeast.

[gaspee]

19. People around here

Don't try to push their religion on you. Knew a woman for years before I knew she was a jesusfreak - and I'm talking big-time, everyone else is going to burn in hell, jesusfreak.

People keep that shit to themselves around here. As they should.

Hell, people know what private means around here, unlike other parts of the country I've lived in where everyone knows everyone else's business.