Quote Originally Posted by Feanor
American church attendance is among the highest in the world. The area of highest church attendance is the south and lower mid-west sometimes called the "Bible Belt". Not entirely coincidentally, IMO, this area has seen a shift in the last 40 years of so stronger and stronger support for the Republican Party. In the same interval the Republican Party has become more and more doctrinaire with respect to right-wing economic ideology and conservative social ideals.

Not to tar all devout Christians with the same brush, but a high proportion of these Bible Belt Christians are actually not: they are modern-day Pharisees. As the Biblical Pharisees, they stressing their supposed personal virtues, ("Thank you, God, that I am not as other men"), and the letter of the law over charity and concern for others. If you have any Christian background, you will recall that Jesus condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites.
$100 to Feanor for this!