Just why is WV and environs relatively Godless?

[Torie]

I am putting this here, since this is about religious demographics rather than political demographics. See the map below. Notice all that blue area in WV, the coal country of KY, southern Ohio, and some of the blue ridge in Virginia? That blue color represents the least religious quintile by percentage of those affiliated with a religion. My question is why. One would think places like WV, particularly since it has trended so heavily Pub, would be part of the bible belt. It's not. Ditto for the coal country. Granted the map is distorted in the sense that in Catholic areas, the percentage of Godless is understated since the Catholic Church claims you for life, even if you have been Godless for decades, or unaffiliated (this the surprising degree of religious adherence in the Berkshires, which I assure you is not a place to find religion - just a bunch of ex-Catholics in the hood is my assumption). Anyway, while everybody knows that the Northwest tends to be secular, few know about this other secular node in parts of the Appalachians and environs. Maybe they are God fearing but don't do institutionalized religion. I don't know.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

[RI]

They're "churchless", not Godless. West Virginians are incredibly atomistic when it comes to religion, in that they tend to attend very small, very local churches ("mountain churches") that get ignored in ARDA surveys.

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[Torie]

They're "churchless", not Godless. West Virginians are incredibly atomistic when it comes to religion, in that they tend to attend very small, very local churches ("mountain churches") that get ignored in ARDA surveys.

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Thanks for clearing that up. Makes sense.