Reply #15: I have fundamentalist and non-fundie southern relatives [View All]

[melody]

The fundamentalists who are racist couch their biases in terms of church teaching -- be it ethnic
racism or homophobia or gender bias. It's mainly rooted, imho, in that far-right evangelical southern
culture. You look for the source near where the trend is most strong -- there are still black churches
and white churches in that community. Religion itself (in its fundamentalist form) is founded on reactionary,
accepted notions. So is bigotry. The far-right church is the most powerful force in many southern communities.

All that said, the southern churches have also given us many great progressives.