Reply #5: That's old, old news

[Dogmudgeon]

But it's still one of the best-kept secrets in America.

The Bible Belt has higher rates of divorce, abuse, adultery, assault, incest, pedophilia, rape, statutory rape, battery, petty theft, fraud, breaking and entering, public drunkenness, DUI, harassment, and just about any other small-time loser crime you can think of.

Massachussetts is the state with the lowest divorce rates, hands-down.

Even within specific areas, both secular conservatism and conservative religionizing are associated with moral misbehavior.

The only caveat I have is that we shouldn't gloat too much. Poverty is probably just as powerful a cause as religion, and may generate a lot of the religion itself. Opiate of the masses and all that.

--p!