Is the North losing the Faith?

In the article Survey Finds God Big in Mississippi, Not So Much in Vermont, Adelle Banks discusses a new Gallup Poll that show Mississippi, as well as the traditional Bible Belt continuing to be the most religious and New England, with Vermont at the forefront, to be the most irreligious. The Gallup Poll interviewed of 350,000 individuals by asking them to answer the question "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" The poll showed that 85 percent of Mississippians and 42 percent of Vermonters answered “yes.”

Although this poll does not show data that many would find controversial, one major issue presents itself. The yes or no question determined whether a person was “religious” or “irreligious.” Such a line is extremely delicate and the insensitivity of the question in order to categorize the most religious and least religious states can be seen as skewed.

One major focus is on Catholicism in the New England states. With such a high Catholic population, yet low rankings would have many believe that either Catholics in the Northeast or leaving the Church, or they are leaving those states and moving elsewhere. However, these statistics, I believe, are skewed by the question asked. The question leaves out the average or “stay at home” religious group. If the question was altered to include more of the overall religious population and not only those who believe religion to be “an important part of your daily life,” New England may move higher in the standings.

Finally, the line between religious and irreligious in the poll is drawn surprisingly down political standings. The more liberal Northeast ranks at the bottom of the “most religious” states and the traditionally conservative Bible Belt ranks at the top. This begs the question of not whether religion plays an important part in a person’s daily life, but where does that importance rank in relation to a person’s other beliefs.