Elvis is dead, and the Baptists might not be feeling so good themselves. Religion in the South, long the power center of born-again Christians, is loosening its Bible belt and putting out the welcome mat for Vishnu and goddess worship, too, or so say the experts. But it's also adjusting to new choices in spirituality and a national disillusion with church loyalties. The 16 panelists at the Episcopal Church-related school tried to make sense of a changing regional scene. The Southern Baptist Convention lost membership last year for the first time in 72 years.
Muslim mosques are now common in Southern cities.
Pentecostalism is prosperous and mainstream, perhaps at the expense of passion. We like a little modernity, a little orthodoxy, a pinch of pentecostalism. Then we mix it into a spiritual succotash. More than other places, it pushed into everyday life, mixing faith with politics, education and football. Many of those distinctives remain.