Chrysti The Wordsmith: Bible Belt

Greetings This is Christie the wordsmith. America's corn belt is most commonly identified with the Midwestern states where corn is the predominant cash crop. The southern states from Florida to California comprise the Sun Belt. And with Utah declaring Jello the official state snack food it and portions of the surrounding states have been nicknamed the Jell-O belt. But where exactly is America's Bible Belt. Is it a geographically delineated region like the belts mentioned above. The man responsible for coining this term is HL Mencken social critic and journalist for The Baltimore Sun. Also a critic of religion Mencken in the early 1920s began searching for a term that described in his words parts of the republic where be Elza Bob is still as real as Babe Ruth. And men drink raw fusel oil hot from the still. For example in the rural sections of the Middle West and everywhere in the south save a few walled towns. Macon went on to say that his Bible Belt existed anywhere that quote Baptist and Methodist barbarism reigned today nearly a

century after Macon coined this term. The boundaries of a so-called Bible Belt are extremely elastic. Yet the region is perceived by most to exist roughly in the south from the Carolinas to New Mexico where there are concentrated communities of religious conservatives whose beliefs are Bible based. I'm Christie the wordsmith. You can access a bibliography of dictionaries and read books on the series website. Wordsmith radio dot org. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dotcom.