\n\t\tCite this Article
\n\t<\/h5>\n
Joshua D. Urich, “Southern, Secular, and Secret: How the Internet is Changing (Ir)Religion in the South,”\u00a0Journal of Southern Religion<\/em> (18) (2016): jsreligion.org\/vol18\/urich.<\/p>\n This work is licensed CC-BY<\/a>. You are encouraged to make free use of this publication<\/a>. In November 2013, a man calling himself \u201cSouthernTeapot\u201d appealed to the online forum \u201cReddit\u201d for advice. \u201cI am literally scared to post this,\u201d he wrote, \u201cbut I\u2019m about to go crazy.\u201d As a lawyer living in the Deep South, SouthernTeapot believed his livelihood depended on his reputation in the community. As a result, he hid his atheism. Over the years this duplicity wore on him, and he became depressed. It was time for a change, but he did not know what to do. So, he turned to the Internet. His initial post, entitled \u201cI am an Atheist Attorney in the Deep South living as either a hostage or an infiltrator depending on your point of view\u2026\u201d garnered over one hundred comments. Inspired by the response, SouthernTeapot posted again two weeks later. Based on suggestions from the forum, SouthernTeapot began psychological counseling, planned to come out as an atheist\u2014through a blog or a book\u2014and started attending atheist meetings in a nearby city.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Dozens of such discussions exist on Reddit and similar sites. Indeed, statements like \u201cI am an atheist living in the Bible Belt\u2026\u201d have become a frequent trope in online atheist circles. Since about 2010, there has been a steady increase in blogs, YouTube channels, meet-up pages, and discussion forums for and by secular southerners that take up the question of what it means to be atheist in the South.[2]<\/sup><\/a> These online sources broadcast the daily challenges, frustrations, and victories of southerners who reject religion. In southern atheists\u2019 complaints and celebrations in blog posts, discussion forums, and videos, we can see the development of a particularly strident mode of religious dissent through online atheist networks in the South, creative modes of resistance to the dominant religious culture in the Bible Belt, and the disruption of rural surveillance and discipline strategies.<\/p>\n Although there has been a long history of religious dissent in the South, the Internet has forever altered the way southerners adapt to, circumvent, or resist its dominant Christian culture, and scholars of contemporary southern religion cannot afford to ignore these tactics.[3]<\/sup><\/a> Moreover, we should take special note of the content and tone of secular southerners\u2019 dissent. Scholars such as Tracy Fessenden, Kathryn Lofton, and John Modern have argued that non-specific Protestantism has shaped and continues to shape American secularism. Chad Seales has argued that the Protestant-secular continuum is more appropriate for the U.S. northeast, as the South does not fit the continuum model of secularism. Rather, Seales contends, the secular and the religious exist \u201cin spatial relationship with one another, with the secular mutually dependent and constitutively defined (or named) against the religious\u2026\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a> In this brief piece, I will examine how southern atheists\u2014particularly those in rural areas\u2014use one of the world\u2019s most popular websites, Reddit, to express their dissent. For rural southerners using Reddit, secularism is indeed physically tied to southern religion and yet defined against it. It is my hope that this online evidence can open new avenues of discussion not only for the study of southern religion, but also for the study of American secularism.[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Reddit works simply. Users can create a discussion thread by submitting text or a link to an article or photo, on which other users can comment. Users also have the opportunity to \u201cupvote\u201d or \u201cdownvote\u201d\u2014that is approve or disapprove of\u2014a post. The more upvotes a post receives, the higher it appears on the list of posts. Downvotes cancel out upvotes, and enough downvotes will force a post to the bottom of the list, which usually means it will never be seen. Reddit is easy to get the hang of and even easier to join; as a result, many \u201cRedditors\u201d use multiple usernames to preserve anonymity. There is no simple way to determine who lies behind usernames. Reddit is thus the ideal forum for skeptical southerners who fear retribution for their nonconformity. Easy access to an anonymous forum has led some southern atheists to \u201ccome out\u201d\u2014an intentional reference to the \u201ccloset\u201d of homosexuality\u2014to their online peers while hiding their atheism from their family and friends.<\/p>\n While anonymity and ease of use are boons to secular southerners, they present serious methodological challenges to the scholar. It is possible to message users directly, but in my own experience it can be difficult to begin a correspondence with secular southerners. More than other sources, Reddit posts\u2014or any online posts, for that matter\u2014need to be read critically for biases, exaggeration, and outright untruthfulness. If contacting a user directly yields no results, it is helpful to search for similar ideas repeated by different users or on different sites. In this way, scholars can begin to identify aspects of southern secularism.[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n The first theme one notices in online discussions of southern atheism is their perceived outsider status. For example, in April 2013, a Canadian asked, \u201cIs the bible belt in America really as bad as the Internet implies?\u201d About thirty people responded to this query, and the answers were variations of the most popular response: \u201cNo, its worse usually,\u201d which was offered by an Alabaman.[7]<\/sup><\/a> Another person added to the conversation: \u201cI’m from Oklahoma… It’s the beer gut hanging over the shiny Texas shaped buckle of the bible belt. And yes, it is that bad. Make any claims that something religious isn’t the be[s]t decision regarding… Anything… And you will literally be punched in the mouth\u2026I have witnessed this.\u201d[8]<\/sup><\/a> A few months later, another non-southerner created a text post entitled: \u201cA Yankee atheist visiting the Bible Belt.\u201d The text read only, \u201cDamn, you guys weren\u2019t joking.\u201d[9]<\/sup><\/a> The most detailed and dramatic account of persecution came from a man claiming to be an atheist living in North Carolina for nearly thirty-five years. \u201cI don’t go around talking about it much, but I don’t pretend I’m faithful even when I should have. I’ve lost a couple of jobs over it, and had folks spread lies & break me and a special young lady up one time. I’ve had my cars vandalized, my home damaged & both defecated on.\u201d In sum, this person concluded, if you do not want trouble then keep your lack of faith to yourself.[10]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n As far as I am aware there has been no scholarly investigation into the frequency of anti-atheist persecution in the U.S. South, but in this case statistics are not as important as perception. The extreme examples above become symbolically important for readers because such examples reinforce southern atheists\u2019 preexisting belief that Christians dominate the South and, as a result, it is unsafe for atheists to reveal their (ir)religious identities. Christian family, friends, employers, and neighbors all form networks of power and ensnare them in the panoptic gaze of Christianity. Stories of atheists who have been fired from jobs or kicked out of homes are all spectacular examples of the discipline that awaits dissenters. For some on these Internet forums, the threat of punishment is real\u2014there are evangelical supervisors or Fundamentalist parents. For others, the threat is vague\u2014a sense of foreboding based on catastrophic anecdotes culled from the pages of Reddit, ExChristian.net, and other websites. Whatever their personal experiences, though, many rural, southern atheists describe feeling powerless, afraid, and frustrated because of their geographic location.<\/p>\n The majority of southerners who turn to the Internet to complain of being trapped by or punished for their dissent tend to come from the rural south\u2014they live in small towns where social, familial, and business relationships are intertwined with religion. These southerners often fantasize about leaving the South entirely or, more significantly, moving to one of the South\u2019s urban areas where atheism is accepted. Until they can move, though, they turn to the Internet for support. Online, these rural southerners do things they believe are only possible in a city or outside the South entirely: form networks with other atheists in order to complain and joke about religion, to ask advice for difficult situations, and to resist Christian influence in their lives. As a result, the Internet simultaneously gives rural atheists new opportunities to resist Christian dominance and the power \u201cto expose the shabbiness and the arrogance of the culture surrounding them\u201d through discussion forums, websites, and blogs.[11]<\/sup><\/a> This online content exemplifies how southern atheists use their outsider status simultaneously to take on the burdens of martyrdom and the resulting power to make social commentary.<\/p>\n For many rural southern atheists, the first act of resistance is proclaiming their religious identity and clearly delineating themselves from religious people. In February of 2014, for example, a man created the anonymous username SouthernAtheist47 specifically to unburden himself and reach out to fellow atheists. \u201cBeing in the deep south,\u201d he wrote, \u201cI feel trapped.\u201d Besides his wife, SouthernAtheist47 had only admitted his atheism to \u201ctwo other living human beings\u201d for fear of being disowned, harassed, fired, or physically harmed. He compared his position to that of homosexuals in the South, a group he believes feel as though they would be \u201cburned at the stake for truly stating who they are.\u201d His only hope, he wrote, was to move out of the South, but at the time of his writing he had been unable to find a job elsewhere. In the meantime, he turned to Reddit. \u201cPerhaps until I finally find the means to claw my way out of the deep south,\u201d he wrote, \u201cI may never be able to fully be honest about my beliefs, but I confess to you. I am a southerner, born and raised, and I don’t believe there is a god.\u201d By openly, if anonymously, announcing his atheism and his southerness, he simultaneously solidified his beleaguered religious identity and defined himself as separate from the South\u2019s Christian culture. By posting their \u201ccoming out\u201d stories to such a popular discussion forum as Reddit, these users give their stories a power akin to the evangelical testimony: a public admission of dissent that symbolically binds southern atheists to the larger community of atheists, giving them confidence to embrace their outsider status. One important way they turn their outsider status into strength is through exposing flaws in southern culture.[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n The simple act of complaining exposes hypocrisy, ignorance, and other perceived flaws in religious southerners, which legitimizes and empowers secular southerners. One woman described applying for a job at a public high school. She was dismayed to see \u201ca large framed print of the American flag emblazoned with the text, \u2018in God we trust\u2019\u201d and outraged by the principal\u2019s attempts to uncover her religious beliefs. She ended the post with a simple line: \u201cConclusion: I hate being an atheist in the Bible Belt.\u201d[13]<\/sup><\/a> Another atheist complained of biblical illiteracy among Christians in the Bible Belt.[14]<\/sup><\/a> SouthernAtheist47 described southerners as \u201cmilitant\u2026back-woods Baptists\u201d and his own family as \u201cpoor, uneducated folk who at this stage in the game…couldn’t possibly\u2026understand.\u201d[15]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Portraying oneself as the disaffected minority is a popular trope in religious dissent. In invoking this trope, southern atheists give themselves the authority of martyrs to criticize and change the dominant culture.<\/p>\n The content of such posts is as important as the tone. The woman frustrated by the \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d American flag received many replies to her post stressing the illegality of refusing to hire someone for religious differences. Some users suggest she go to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In similar situations, in-the-know users suggest that the embattled poster submit a complaint to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). Appealing to such organizations as the ACLU and FFRF is one way that atheists in the South reaffirm their patriotism in a region in which\u2013\u2013in their eyes, at least\u2013\u2013atheism is still associated with communism or being otherwise un-American. Entrenching themselves within the separation of church and state gives southern atheists a moral and patriotic high ground and to show that they are more American than their religious counterparts because they abide by the Constitution. Pointing out biblical illiteracy among religious southerners or calling them \u201cpoor\u201d and \u201cuneducated\u201d undermines the authority of the dominant religious culture, thereby empowering secular southerners who often perceive themselves as more knowledgeable about the Bible and more educated in general than their religious counterparts.[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Humor is among the most common tool in the atheist arsenal. For atheists in the South, simple images with snappy text not only express complex emotions, but also provide an opportunity for more in-depth discussions. For example, a post titled, \u201cI hate the south\u201d linked to an image of a Bible and a handgun with the following text superimposed: \u201cTwo things every American should know how to use\u2026neither of which are taught in schools.\u201d The image then directed viewers to the Facebook group \u201cRepublican Revolution.\u201d[17]<\/sup><\/a> Unsurprisingly, the top-rated comments are variations on a theme: religion is bad. The most popular reply to the image corrected its text to: \u201cHow about, \u2018One is a weapon that has been used to kill millions of people over many years, in many countries, for many stupid reasons\u2026the other is a gun.\u2019\u201d Many more comments, however, point to more complex discussions about stereotyping and prejudice. Other posters attacked the false generalization that all southerners are \u201credneck bucktoothed retard[s].\u201d Instead, one user corrected, this image applied more to rural America in general, not southern America. This tension reveals some of the dynamics of group identity formation for both southern atheists and atheists in general. While there is a tendency to lump southerners, Christians, gun owners, and Republicans into the same category, there is a countertendency to assert particular humanist values: critical thinking, acceptance of others, and anti-prejudice.<\/p>\n While southern atheists are particularly sensitive to generalizations about the South, they are nevertheless highly critical of perceived Christian hegemony and do not shy away from generalizing their opponents. One image compared debating Christians to the popular film The Matrix <\/em>by linking to a picture of the film\u2019s protagonist, Neo, surrounded by the rogue computer program called Agent Smith.[18]<\/sup><\/a> This image reverses the power dynamic between Christians and southern atheists, casting Christians as automatons and atheists as the sole enlightened figures. Several users commented that The Matrix<\/em> image, for example, expressed exactly how they felt. One wrote, \u201cAs an Atheist from Texas, this is the analogous picture I have been waiting for good sir.\u201d\u00a0 Users from North Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas, and even Hawaii all chimed in to share their own feelings of isolation. As more people posted, sub-conversations developed. One person from Tennessee asked, \u201cAtheist living in Cookeville now, anyone near the area or know any groups there?\u201d To which another replied, \u201cNot sure how far from Knoxville that is, but we have an atheist meetup every Tuesday evening at Barley’s starting around 5:30pm.\u201d[19]<\/sup><\/a> This post and many like it point to an inherent assumption shared by religious and secular southerners alike: the city is secular and countryside is religious.[20]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Finally, a third post linked to an image of a \u201cFamily Christians Stores\u201d location in South Carolina. In the comment sections, users began complaining about various aspects of living in the South. The user who posted the image shared his or her incredulity upon hearing someone say that \u201cthey liked it a lot better [in this town] than their last town because \u2018There are like, no black people here.\u2019\u201d This sparked a long conversation criticizing southerners for being actively or passively racist.[21]<\/sup><\/a> Indeed, among online atheists there is a common tendency to conflate southern religion and bigotry\u2014besides the above discussion, recall SouthernAtheist47\u2019s comparison of being an atheist in the South with being a homosexual in the South. For many atheists on Reddit, criticism of southern religion includes criticism of other aspects of southern life, including racial and political ideologies, social values, and levels of education.<\/p>\n These three images are representative of many more, and however trivial they might appear they have several important functions for atheists in the South. First, such images undermine perceived Christian hegemony by exposing perceived hypocrisy, power differentials, ignorance, and more. Images like these simultaneously legitimize atheists by positioning them as the enlightened minority. But perhaps most importantly, these images further the stereotype of the isolated and besieged dissenters. As R. Laurence Moore demonstrated, outsider status leads to martyrdom, which in turn adds weight to the criticism of minority religious groups and wins them legitimacy and the power to change the dominant culture.[22]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Although the Internet is the ideal place for southern atheists to solidify and legitimize their mental and emotional dissent from Christian hegemony, atheists still struggle to live and work physically surrounded by Christians. Their online discussions about practical difficulties offer a window into how secular southerners subvert or circumnavigate Christian influence on their persons. One atheist, a twenty-eight year old man living in North Carolina, turned to Reddit to find a romantic partner. \u201cI just can’t seem to meet an atheist\/agnostic girl that I can see myself having a future with,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThere aren’t many atheists in my area so the odds of going out and just meeting someone are very low.\u201d After trying a number of options to meet people, the man asked the Reddit forum, \u201cWhat would you do if you were in my situation and wanted to meet someone?\u201d Atheists from all over the South responded. The most popular suggestions were either to look for partners in urban areas\u2014particularly Atlanta and Austin\u2014or in towns with large universities. Online dating was a frequent suggestion\u2014another powerful way to subvert the spatial patterns that characterize surveillance and discipline in the rural South expanding social networks far beyond a person\u2019s physical reach.[23]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Raising children also poses problems for southern skeptics. In one emblematic case, a woman asked for advice because her nine-year-old daughter\u2019s teacher cultivated a religious atmosphere in the classroom. The little girl felt forced to lie and say she was Christian for fear of bullying. The mother, at a loss for how to handle the situation, asked Reddit users for advice. As often happens in these cases, someone who had a similar experience responded. Although angry about the breach of church and state, the responder allowed her child to pretend to be Christian in order to avoid confrontation. The second parent also suggested sending an anonymous FFRF letter to challenge the teacher\u2019s behavior. Other southerners chimed in, though, to remind everyone that such a letter would hardly remain anonymous in a small, southern town.[24]<\/sup><\/a> Here we see the limits of tactics of resistance\u2014as long as subversive acts stay online and anonymous, there is no threat to the resistor. Once an atheist takes some kind of physical action, networks of power in small, southern towns can assert themselves.[25]<\/sup><\/a> In many posts looking for advice, one finds the same categories of comments: some people suggest active resistance, others suggest subterfuge in order to fit in, and still others suggest dialogue and diplomacy. The user must determine how willing they are to risk their anonymity and incur real consequences.<\/p>\n All of the examples above spotlight people who, for one reason or another, felt uncomfortable directly counteracting Christian exertions of power in their lives. However, some atheists living in the Bible belt, particularly younger southerners, feel more comfortable publicly opposing Christianity. For example, after a professor in Georgia showed a documentary called \u201cThe Case for a Creator,\u201d based on Lee Strobel\u2019s book of the same name, one college student turned to the atheism Reddit forum for ways to refute the claims in the documentary. More than twenty people replied. Most suggested that the student contact the FFRF, \u201c[n]ot just for yourself, but for everyone in this school and everyone in the bible belt!\u201d Another commenter posted a series of online refutations of Strobel\u2019s arguments.[26]<\/sup><\/a> A few months later, the same user asked for resources to refute the arguments of his Mormon family.[27]<\/sup><\/a> For this person, Reddit is a resource for active resistance.<\/p>\n Other southern atheists are even more militant, specifically describing their lives as acts of defiance against the Christian institution that threatens to overtake Dixie. \u201cWithout men and women of reason,\u201d one person wrote, \u201cthe bible belt would inevitability plunge deeper into religious insanity. We are fighting to prevent that each day by standing our ground. This is our home, and by having our voices heard, our protests seen, and our presence known, we make it a little better.\u201d Other proud southerners responded in kind: \u201cWhen ever I start thinking of moving the back of my mind screams \u2018I was born and raised here and I’ll be damned(: P) if I let them win,\u2019\u201d wrote one self-identified agnostic pagan.[28]<\/sup><\/a> For atheists like these, the struggle against Christianity has real stakes: \u201cI hope for a day when my grandchildren can grow up in a south free of religious persecution, all because people like us did not stand idle and let delusion engulf this beautiful land.\u201d[29]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n There can be little doubt that the rural South is predominately Christian, and that atheists are among the religious minorities. Unlike large cities, in which one can live anonymously and move among disparate social circles, many southern towns have small and interconnected social networks. Before the Internet, admitting unbelief to anyone threatened one\u2019s emotional, mental, and even physical well-being. If a non-believer could not move to an urban area, he or she had live duplicitously. With the advent of the Internet and anonymous discussion forums, this spatial separation has been disrupted, giving rural atheists new avenues support and means of resistance to Christian socio-cultural dominance. How their dissent takes shape will undoubtedly impact the way scholars approach American secularism.<\/p>\n As southern atheists develop their dissent both on and offline, scholars should consider the following:<\/p>\n [1]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cI am an Atheist Attorney in the Deep South living as either a hostage or an infiltrator depending on your point of view. I\u2019m writing this for some advice, but questions are also welcome,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/TrueAtheism\/comments\/1pu9wq\/i_am_an_atheist_attorney_in_the_deep_south_living\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015).\u00a0 Rather than burden the text with unnecessayry [sic<\/em>] or corrections, I have only modified citations if changes are required for comprehension. As a result, there are numerous typos and grammatical errors within the quotation marks. These should be taken within the context of informal Internet discussion, and need not reflect poorly on the original authors.<\/p>\n [2]<\/sup><\/a> There are a variety of secular southerners: atheists, anti-theists, and agnostics, to name a few. Like-minded southerners include pagans, neo-pagans, wiccans, and others. In this piece, I am primarily concerned with activist atheist southerners, that is, southerners who reject supernaturalism. I use the term activist atheist southerners to describe those for whom opposition to religion<\/em> plays some role in their lives or identities. I am not concerned with apathetic atheists, that is, southerners who reject supernaturalism and for whom religion is unimportant.<\/p>\n [3]<\/sup><\/a> Many atheists themselves attribute the increasing number of people who identify as atheist to the Internet. See, for example, this image (Figure III) posted to <www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism<\/a>: http:\/\/imgur.com\/EVNt1Qv<\/a>> (accessed January 9, 2015).<\/p>\n [4]<\/sup><\/a> Chad Seales, The Secular Spectacle: Performing Religion in a Southern Town<\/em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 11\u201312.<\/p>\n [5]<\/sup><\/a> In Culture and Redemption: Religion, the Secular, and American Literature<\/em> (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007), Tracy Fessenden argues that a non-specific Protestantism lies behind our current understanding of secularization as a political process and secularism as a national episteme. Put briefly, these Protestant foundations are: a personal faith or personal religion, preference for the written word, and the creation of a vague, white Protestant center through which other races and religions are defined. Whereas Fessenden deals primarily with literary history, John Modern roots his analysis in the religious climate circa 1851 in Secularism in Antebellum America<\/em> (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011). Modern asserts that the creation of evangelical networks, the increase of technological mechanization, the rationalization of spirituality, and notions of \u201ctrue religion\u201d among the disparate religious groups were the vague, unspoken mechanisms of secularism that simultaneously governed public sphere of the democratic nation state and the private sphere of religion. This understanding of secularism places it on a continuum with Protestantism, a concept rooted in Weberian rationalization. And like Weber\u2019s Protestant Ethic<\/em>, both Fessenden and Modern rely on northeastern liberal Protestant sources for their arguments. Although the continuum model of American secularism fits well in the northeast, it does not fit as well in the South.<\/p>\n Seales uses Durkheimian interpretive methods and Talal Asad\u2019s notion of the secular as transcendent mediation to complicate the Protestant-Secular continuum and argue for regional secularisms. Seales shows that in Siler City, North Carolina wealthy white people sacralize their secular spaces through secular rituals, creating for themselves a space set apart from working-class whites and non-whites. This is not to say that the secular is a mask for the religious, but instead that Siler City whites use secularism in oppositional conjunction with religion. In other words, religious people in Siler City used the secular to reinforce their sacred spaces\u2014but religious people themselves were not secular. The secular is therefore not a continuum, but instead a paired opposite, and a tool through which religious or sacred boundaries can be maintained. Seales compares secularism in the South to the South\u2019s color line: the secular and the religious exist in a spatial, oppositional relationship.<\/p>\n It is not my intention to demonstrate the veracity of Seales\u2019s regional secularisms in this piece. Instead, I wish to explore what it could mean for the study of religion in the South\u2014and in the United States\u2014if southern secularism were drastically different from other secularisms. As a result, the majority of this piece explores how secular southerners live<\/em> secularism in the South. It is my hope that reading secular southerners\u2019 daily experiences in such raw and often emotional detail, scholars will pay heed to modern secularists\u2019 attempts to exorcise the ghost of religion from their midst\u2014if, indeed, there ever was such a ghost at all.<\/p>\n [6]<\/sup><\/a> The Internet is still something of a conundrum to scholars of religion. Early studies in online religion proved, in hindsight, overly optimistic about the Internet\u2019s ability to foster pluralism and understanding (For example, a foundational text is Jeff Zaleski, The Soul of Cyberspace <\/em>[New York: Harper Collins, 1997]). A second wave of scholarship followed this optimistic period, and scholars of the second wave were concerned about the authenticity of online religion and how religious rituals manifest themselves in cyberspace (for example Lorne Dawson and Douglas Cowan, Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet <\/em>[New York: Routledge, 2004]). Recent scholarship has taken a more balanced approach, incorporating technology holistically into the study of religion. Robert Glenn Howard\u2019s Digital Jesus: The Making of a New Christian Fundamentalist Community on the Internet <\/em>(New York: New York University Press, 2011) demonstrates that new and unique religious communities can emerge from online interactions. In addition to Robert Glenn Howard, scholars considering using the Internet as a source would benefit from Heidi A. Campbell\u2019s many works on online religion, particularly When Religion Meets New Media <\/em>(New York: Routledge, 2010), in which she argues that religious people are not fundamentally opposed to technological advancement, nor is technological advancement necessarily in an entirely separate sphere from religion. Instead, a group\u2019s understanding of its sources of authority, its understanding of textual media in general, and its understanding of itself all influence how it will adapt to new media.<\/p>\n [7]<\/sup><\/a> In the post \u201cAlabama voters ban sharia law,\u201d the user \u201cerykthebest\u201d claims to live in Alabama. <http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2014\/11\/alabama-voters-ban-sharia-law-while-maine-voters-consider-bear-baiting\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015).<\/p>\n [8]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cIs the bible belt in America really as bad as the internet implies it is?\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/1cuie0\/is_the_bible_belt_in_america_really_as_bad_as_the\/> (accessed January 5, 2015).<\/p>\n [9]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cA Yankee atheist visiting the Bible Belt,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/2al0ml\/a_yankee_atheist_visiting_the_bible_belt\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015).<\/p>\n [10]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cDo you feel discriminated against in the Bible Belt (USA)?\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/TrueAtheism\/comments\/26gl1n\/do_you_feel_discriminated_in_the_bible_belt_usa\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015). User: \u201cBitrandombit.\u201d<\/p>\n [11]<\/sup><\/a> R. Laurence Moore, Religious Outsiders and the Making of America<\/em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), xii.<\/p>\n [12]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cA confession of a closeted bible-belt atheist,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/exchristian\/comments\/1ygyhv\/a_confession_of_a_closeted_biblebelt_atheist\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015). In the comments of another post, SouthernAtheist47 reveals that he lives in southern Mississippi. See <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/1zef26\/i_live_in_rural_missouri_this_was_pretty_cool_to\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015).<\/p>\n [13]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cUnemployment in the Bible Belt,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/1jfkgu\/unemployment_in_the_bible_belt\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015).<\/p>\n [14]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cFrustrating experiences I keep having with Christian coworkers,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/TrueAtheism\/comments\/2qt2jx\/frustrating_experiences_i_keep_having_with\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015). See also, \u201cLiving in the Bible belt and nobody gets me!,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/TrueAtheism\/comments\/1hn4l6\/living_in_the_bible_belt_and_nobody_gets_me\/<\/a>> (accessed January 6, 2015).<\/p>\n [15]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cA confession of a closeted bible-belt atheist,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/exchristian\/comments\/1ygyhv\/a_confession_of_a_closeted_biblebelt_atheist\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015).<\/p>\n [16]<\/sup><\/a> Atheists\u2019 attempts to wrap themselves in the American flag again call to mind Moore\u2019s Religious Outsiders. <\/em>Like the Mormons, southern atheists do not differ all that much from other southerners as atheists are overwhelmingly white and often middle class. Like the Mormons, atheists embrace their outsider status as the foundation of their identities. And, like the Mormons, atheists are simultaneously ultra-patriotic while simultaneously dissenting from certain American values.<\/p>\n [17]<\/sup><\/a>\u201cI hate the south,\u201d\u00a0 <https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/p9ik1\/i_hate_the_south\/<\/a>> (accessed July 19, 2016).<\/p>\n [18]<\/sup><\/a> \u201chow i feel as an atheist in the bible belt,\u201d\u00a0 <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/kw1h1\/how_i_feel_as_an_atheist_in_the_bible_belt\/<\/a>> (accessed January 5, 2015).<\/p>\n [19]<\/sup><\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [20]<\/sup><\/a> This is an old theme in the South. For instance, the race film The Blood of Jesus <\/em>(1941) was a morality tale depicting a young woman on the edge of death forced to choose between hell, represented by a city, and heaven, represented by the country.<\/p>\n [21]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 \u201cAs a New Yorker who has just recently moved to South Carolina, this shit legitimately creeps me out<\/a>,\u201d<\/p>\n <https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/nszyh\/as_a_new_yorker_who_has_just_recently_moved_to\/<\/a>> (accessed July 21, 2016).<\/p>\n [22]<\/sup><\/a> Moore, Religious Outsiders, <\/em>34.<\/p>\n [23]<\/sup><\/a> \u201chey \/r\/atheism, can you offer some help to a single atheist living in the bible belt?,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/az7af\/hey_ratheism_can_you_offer_some_help_to_a_single\/<\/a>> (accessed January 6, 2015).<\/p>\n [24]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 \u201cMy 9yo daughter (being raised in the bible belt) came home from her public school yesterday and told me that she’s ashamed that she doesn’t believe in God,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheistparents\/comments\/2fcr8g\/my_9yo_daughter_being_raised_in_the_bible_belt\/<\/a>> (accessed January 6, 2015).<\/p>\n [25]<\/sup><\/a> There are dozens of similar posts\u2013\u2013and even an entire forum dedicated to raising children as an atheist parent. The forum (http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheistparents) has 3,965 subscribers as of July 31, 2016.<\/p>\n [26]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cbible belt bio class hell,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/2lh5pp\/bible_belt_bio_class_hell\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n [27]<\/sup><\/a> \u201ci need help,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/exmormon\/comments\/2qtspg\/i_need_a_little_help\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n [28]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cTo all my atheists in the bible belt, stay strong,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/mxpsm\/to_all_my_atheists_in_the_bible_belt_stay_strong\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n [29]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cTo all my atheists in the bible belt, stay strong,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/mxpsm\/to_all_my_atheists_in_the_bible_belt_stay_strong\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n [30]<\/sup><\/a> I am aware of at least one church in Huntsville, Alabama founded to counteract the negative views of Christians and Christian hegemony in the South. Essential Church was founded after the head pastor had a bad experience of religion and politics mixing in a southern church. Essential\u2019s goal is to pare down all the cultural trappings of Christianity in the South and return strictly to the gospel. Note these words from their \u201cValues\u201d webpage: \u201cOur environments will scream, \u201cWe\u2019re glad you\u2019re here;\u201d not, \u201cYou must conform, then you\u2019ll be accepted.\u201d Essential, <http:\/\/essentialhsv.com\/<\/a>> (accessed July 20, 2016).<\/p>\n\n\t\tOpen-access license
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![As a New Yorker who has just recently moved to South Carolina, this shit legitimately creeps me out<\/a>,\u201d<\/p>\n<https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/nszyh\/as_a_new_yorker_who_has_just_recently_moved_to\/<\/a>> (accessed July 21, 2016).<\/p>\n[22]<\/sup><\/a> Moore, Religious Outsiders, <\/em>34.<\/p>\n[23]<\/sup><\/a> \u201chey \/r\/atheism, can you offer some help to a single atheist living in the bible belt?,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/az7af\/hey_ratheism_can_you_offer_some_help_to_a_single\/<\/a>> (accessed January 6, 2015).<\/p>\n[24]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 \u201cMy 9yo daughter (being raised in the bible belt) came home from her public school yesterday and told me that she’s ashamed that she doesn’t believe in God,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheistparents\/comments\/2fcr8g\/my_9yo_daughter_being_raised_in_the_bible_belt\/<\/a>> (accessed January 6, 2015).<\/p>\n[25]<\/sup><\/a> There are dozens of similar posts\u2013\u2013and even an entire forum dedicated to raising children as an atheist parent. The forum (http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheistparents) has 3,965 subscribers as of July 31, 2016.<\/p>\n[26]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cbible belt bio class hell,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/2lh5pp\/bible_belt_bio_class_hell\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n[27]<\/sup><\/a> \u201ci need help,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/exmormon\/comments\/2qtspg\/i_need_a_little_help\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n[28]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cTo all my atheists in the bible belt, stay strong,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/mxpsm\/to_all_my_atheists_in_the_bible_belt_stay_strong\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n[29]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cTo all my atheists in the bible belt, stay strong,\u201d <http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/atheism\/comments\/mxpsm\/to_all_my_atheists_in_the_bible_belt_stay_strong\/<\/a>> (accessed January 8, 2015).<\/p>\n[30]<\/sup><\/a> I am aware of at least one church in Huntsville, Alabama founded to counteract the negative views of Christians and Christian hegemony in the South. Essential Church was founded after the head pastor had a bad experience of religion and politics mixing in a southern church. Essential\u2019s goal is to pare down all the cultural trappings of Christianity in the South and return strictly to the gospel. Note these words from their \u201cValues\u201d webpage: \u201cOur environments will scream, \u201cWe\u2019re glad you\u2019re here;\u201d not, \u201cYou must conform, then you\u2019ll be accepted.\u201d Essential, <http:\/\/essentialhsv.com\/<\/a>> (accessed July 20, 2016).<\/p>\n[31]<\/sup><\/a> Private conversation with one of the full-time clergy at Vox Veniae.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southern, Secular, and Secret: How the Internet is Changing (Ir)Religion in the South Joshua D. Urich Joshua D. Urich is a PhD candidate in Religion in the Americas at the University of Texas\u2013Austin. JSR Volume 18 Cite this Article Joshua D. Urich, “Southern, Secular, and Secret: How the Internet is Changing (Ir)Religion in the South,”\u00a0Journal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-643","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/643\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsreligion.org\/vol18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/Fn9cS.jpg\"){kind=link}