"Godless in Seattle: Is Bill O’Reilly right about us?"
Another instance where the Group discussion character limit forces me to post it in the open............. Fun article nonetheless.
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Posted by Gene Balk
Remember a few Christmases ago, when an atheist group was allowed to place a placard in the Capitol building in Olympia, alongside a Christian Nativity scene? Conservative talking head Bill O’Reilly made a big fuss about it on Fox News, and Washington state briefly became ground zero for the so-called “War on Christmas.” Except it wasn’t so much Washington as it was Seattle. Because even though the incident happened in Olympia, and even though the atheist group responsible for the sign was from out-of-state, O’Reilly didn’t hesitate to blame the whole thing on Seattle. In a Washington Times opinion piece, “Godless in Seattle,“ he claimed it was us city folk shoving our atheism down the throats of the good people of this state:
Sheesh. Tell us how you really feel about us, Bill.
Anyway, while this controversy might seem like ancient history now, it does raise an interesting question: Is there any truth to what O’Reilly wrote about us? Seattle is well-known for being one of the least religious big cities in the country, but was he right that we’re completely out-of-step with the rest of Washington in this regard? Are the pagans of Seattle bullying the decent, God-fearing folk from everywhere else in the state?
Luckily, the data exist to answer this question. The recently-released Census of U.S. Religions tracks the religious participation — and lack of participation — for people around the country, including the 10 largest metro areas here in Washington. So I crunched the numbers to get a snapshot of the state’s religious landscape, and to see if O’Reilly knew what he was talking about.
And as it turns out, he didn’t. Take a look at this ranking of Washington’s metros, from least religious to most:
Continued...
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Posted by Gene Balk
Remember a few Christmases ago, when an atheist group was allowed to place a placard in the Capitol building in Olympia, alongside a Christian Nativity scene? Conservative talking head Bill O’Reilly made a big fuss about it on Fox News, and Washington state briefly became ground zero for the so-called “War on Christmas.” Except it wasn’t so much Washington as it was Seattle. Because even though the incident happened in Olympia, and even though the atheist group responsible for the sign was from out-of-state, O’Reilly didn’t hesitate to blame the whole thing on Seattle. In a Washington Times opinion piece, “Godless in Seattle,“ he claimed it was us city folk shoving our atheism down the throats of the good people of this state:
Originally posted by Bill O'Reilly
Anyway, while this controversy might seem like ancient history now, it does raise an interesting question: Is there any truth to what O’Reilly wrote about us? Seattle is well-known for being one of the least religious big cities in the country, but was he right that we’re completely out-of-step with the rest of Washington in this regard? Are the pagans of Seattle bullying the decent, God-fearing folk from everywhere else in the state?
Luckily, the data exist to answer this question. The recently-released Census of U.S. Religions tracks the religious participation — and lack of participation — for people around the country, including the 10 largest metro areas here in Washington. So I crunched the numbers to get a snapshot of the state’s religious landscape, and to see if O’Reilly knew what he was talking about.
And as it turns out, he didn’t. Take a look at this ranking of Washington’s metros, from least religious to most:
Continued...
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