So, I spent about 3 hours in my local smallish rural town for their community wide garage sale. Every single household holding a garage sale had bibles, bible verses on this or that, bible storybooks for children, etc. This is what I'm up against around here. This town of 2000 has 3 churches right in town (you can walk across town in about 20 min), and there are various other churches outside of town sprinkled in our sparsely populated county. Seriously, the only places open in town on Sundays are churches and bars.
And.....I'm this former city girl, Asian, vegan, atheist, tattooed, sometimes hippyish sometimes gothy, with pet snakes and tarantulas. I tend to stand out just a little bit.
14
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15 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Yep my sympathies. My closest couple towns don’t even have a bar or liquor store, gotta go 20-30 mins down the highway to the edge of the nearest actual city to find a liquor store n they’re still closed on sundays. Churches, dollar general, gas stations n a few restaurants are the only things open on Sunday around here. Can’t even buy beer at 4 out of 5 of the closest corner stores n gas stations because they’re right next to churches. There must be a church for every 100 people in this god forsaken county. Pardon my French, but fuck this puritanical bullshit right in the butt with a rusty crucifix.
Wurlitzer
Level 8
May 26, 2018
3
I hear you! I grew up in a very small rural town in Arkansas. I was positive we were the only Atheist family. The town literally has more churches than stop lights!
But thankfully, I was able to leave for college. Bigger city. More educated folks. I'll never move back to the small town. I want my children raised in a more diverse and inclusive place.
Sara72712
Level 6
May 26, 2018
4
Churces and bars lol
I find that funny.
Piece2YourPuzzle
Level 8
May 26, 2018
3
Sounds familiar ..guess that’s why ‘Im here’ on a Saturday Night 
As for the garage sale garbage, I’d gather up an armload ..look kinda sorryeyed.. and ask what they want for it all 
...I know, the landfills are overflowing..
Varn
Level 8
May 26, 2018
2
I did find some useful items. For my home and my business about to open. My most exciting find was a brand new veggie spiraler. Go figure they never used it.
Makes me wonder why they're selling all this stuff at a garage sale? Wouldn't you think they'd want to keep all this churchy stuff? Pardon the irony, but maybe they've seen the "light" and aren't so different from you after all???
ThinkKate
Level 6
May 26, 2018
2
Good point. For the books I think their kids might have outgrown them.
Got you beat with churches, 20 and we have prisons too. Just had the same city wide here. I am sure if I would have went out to look, would have found pretty much the same thing.
Mark013
Level 7
May 26, 2018
2
I don’t think 20 churches would fit in a town that size. May be in the county. But then where would they put all the cattle (and horses, and buffalos, and elk, llamas).
@graceylou City is a little more populated, around 12,000 but that includes inmates who don't get out to go to church. This Google map search of churches says it all.
[google.com]
@Mark013 that’s a good idea for illustrating just how depressing your area is lol. I’ve got like 21 motberfuckin churches in the 10 square miles around me. What the actual fuck? There’s a couple small one traffic light towns but other than that it’s just subdivisions surrounded by farms and churches here.
Bonus trivia: Laurel Run Park and that part of the Holston river is featured in the Mel Gibson/Sissy Spacek movie The River. Their farm house is around here somewhere and the factory he was striking from (or scabbing? Don’t remember) is the Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport a little east of here where my dad n everyone else around here worked.
From 6th grade through high school I lived in an Illinois town of 750 with four churches so it could be worse At the time I was a believer myself so it wasn't a practical issue. Back then ( early 1970s ) you would have been problematic even for the minority of secular citizens in that town, I'd wager; hippies and goths and Asians and vegans were things we were vaguely aware of happening in those strange Left Coast cities thousands of miles away, and I suspect most of us preferred not to have to deal with it.
So ... 50+ years of arguable progress later, my guess is that you're nowhere near as suspicious as you would have been in my salad days. So there's that. You keep doing you though, it's important.
mordant
Level 8
May 26, 2018
4
Oh yes, I never feel unwelcome here. I grew up on the west coast in a very multicultural environment. I never even think of myself as a minority, just another human being. Here it’s just more conservative and “traditional” I suppose. Even in the city they are a lot more conservative minded than I was used to growing up. But as long as they don’t push anything on me I don’t push anything back on them. I guess I’m just a little sad there are few here I can relate to. I can have civilized conversations with them but not be close friends. I still hang out in the city with my city friends.
You should wear a pointy hat and carry a wand and boop all the little children on the head with the wand while muttering obscure Latin phrases and see what happens..... LOL
SkotlandSkye
Level 8
May 26, 2018
2
I’m not beyond dressing and acting like that. Lol.
Difficult. I know from other friends i have had in similar circumstances that they have had to pretend and go along with the community God spirit else they would be shunned. What a world we live in 
Stay true to yourself but be non committal and just make all the right noises without making statements.
Or move 
here in the UK we don't have this nonsense.
Jontom2017
Level 5
May 26, 2018
3
I never say anything negative to them and luckily these people are only quietly religious. No bible thumping and such. I feel may be more surrounded than confronted. Luckily I don’t live in town but in my own section of the county. People here don’t ask you if you go to church but they ask which church you go to. I just don’t answer.
You are who you are
They are who they are......
PaulWinquist1945
Level 5
May 26, 2018
3
Welcome to rural living in the bible belt. Im actually surprised there are only 3 churches. My hometown was only 1200 and we had 5.
Kadygee
Level 6
May 26, 2018
3
The others are pretty close by town. I think there is just not enough space in town for more churches because all the rest of the spaces are taken up by bars and liquor stores.
Varn:
Had the one outright atheist friend I’ve met in SW VA describe our local church density as amounting to one church for every 6 citizens! I’ll suspect that includes some old ones, prettymuch standing as ..historical sites, like a rundown school house. But none pay property taxes, so they’re there till they rot, burn or blow over
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