As a spiritual-futurist, I have a BA degree majoring in history. One cannot know the future without knowing the past which holds clues to what is on the horizon. The world is in such a rapid expansion of knowledge that we are close to entering a tipping point that will forever change earth as we know it.
The last time I was in Orlando at a Disney store, I found the same thing that I've noticed in all the Wal-Mart stores. Everything is made somewhere else. Made in China is the most popular garment tag. Made in Taiwan is the most popular electronic toy or gadget. And, then there are those made in Mexico for handbags and flip-flops. Ah, but we do have something made not just in America, but the Bible Belt!
Good old-fashioned fundamentalism is still alive in the Bible Belt, although it's not quite so widespread as it was in 1909.
Bible Belt is an informal term for an area of the Southeast United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a dominant part of the culture. Much of the Bible Belt consists of the state From Florida-Georgia to Oklahoma-Texas and all states in between them. During the colonial period (1607–1776), the South was a stronghold of the Anglican Church. Its transition into a stronghold of non-Anglican Protestantism occurred gradually over the next century, as a series of religious revival movements, many associated with the Baptist denomination, gained great popularity in the region.
Hey, I know. I once was a North American Baptist Convention member, and then a Southern Baptist zealot.
Seriously, when I say zealot, I mean exactly that! I embraced my denominational beliefs with gusto, fire, and of course DAMNATION for those who thought otherwise. Things have changed in my life: some things decades ago and some a few years ago. I believe in creationism, but not the Biblical version. I believe in God but not the popular one who's on a cloud out there, somewhere. I believe in following Jesus but not the same way legalists do. I believe in a transformational salvation but not like I was initially taught.
Yes, I still live IN the Bible Belt; however, I've put away have put away the needful child like beliefs (I Cor. 13) and moved on to adulthood wherein I prefer a good filet mignon washed down with a 1989 Mouton Rothschild instead of Malt-O-Meal washed down with MILK (Heb. 5). Listen, everyone has to START the journey somewhere, but you didn't have a journey if you're still where you started! I'm not where I began, but I AM! :-)
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