On Religion

One thing people had strongly warned me about with moving to South Carolina, is the fact that it is in the South of the USA and at one edge of the so-called Bible Belt - the strip of land from East to West covering a lot of the southern states known for their strong religious views. The way people back home talked, they made it sound like there would be sermons on every street corner. Fortunately, this part of South Carolina is a lot more easygoing. Sure, religion is something that is intermingled in every day life - people mention church, a lot of social events occur at church - and, yes, there is religious programming. Whilst some of this is the preacher style schtick that appears on the UK show Tarrant on TV frequently, there are also the programmes that come across as more sincere and less showy in there messages.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that i get the impression that people aren't just religious here - they are also respectful of religion and other's beliefs in general. Thus, my experiences in Charleston thus far are rather less extreme thatn other experiences i have heard of in states such as Texas (a friend's son-in-law refused to let their children watch Harry Potter citing it as evil and the devil's work). Somewhat appropriately enough, a colleague tells me that Charleston was one of the first places of religious tolerance in the state (if not the US) - citing 'You name it, there's a church for it' and indeed, there are 258 churches in the Charleston county area - and certainly i have seen plenty of them on many wanderings and trips downtown. So, if as many religions and sects can exist peacefully in a county in SC, maybe there's hope for the rest of the world.